An Outlaw's legacy
by ninjadragon5
Summary: rattlesnake jake finds out he as a son that he never knew about and becomes the father figure he never thought he be.
1. prologue

**author's note: this is not related to the origin of a killer story in anyway, completely separate story. I own none of the characters from rango expect my OC lolita.**

Outlaw's legacy

Prologue

The sun beat down of the dry landscape of the Mojave Desert, soaking up every last bit of little moisture the desert had to offer. There was not a cloud in the sky to bring relief to the hot sun. The intense heat danced in waves over nothing more a few dry brushes and Joshua trees scattered though out the desert. In this vast desolate landscape, a ominous serpentine shaped figured slithered across it, a rattlesnake that wore a sleek looking black hat on it's head, there were several ammo strapped crisscrossing along his rough scaled body and at the end of its tail was not a rattlesnake rattle, but a metal object in the shape of a nose of a gatling gun, six gun barrels stacked on top of each other, each one able to rotate at it's own accord. But the most striking feature of this rattlesnake was its eyes, it eyes were bight and fiery, with hues of red and orange fading into a bight yellow around the pupil. Those eyes looked like they came from hell itself and seemed to stare into anyone's very soul. It was the grim reaper of the west, rattlesnake Jake. But by this time he was still young and only became to know himself as an outlaw, his reputation was not that wide spread yet and he was still unknown in some parts of the desert.

Jake had been traveling in the desert for a long while now, he was exhausted from the heat of the day and wanted to find a place to rest soon. He wanted to find a town near by, but so far he found none. Soon enough, he had found a small town lying in the desert, he immediately went towards it. Once he got into the town, he did get a few weary looking from the people that were in the town, but he was mostly ignored by them. It seemed no one knew about him in this town yet, otherwise the people would a lot more afraid of him. Jake was kind of glad of that, he did not come here to pick a fight, mostly to just get a cold drink from the local saloon and rest up from a long day of traveling. This town Jake had entered was very small indeed, all it seemed to have in it was a few lopsided and broken down shacks and building made from garage found in the desert and wooden boards, and the citizens in it looked just as dirty and ugly, but at least this town had a saloon. Jake soon entered the saloon though the swinging doors and made his way to the bar. The saloon was a bit small and crowed for a big rattlesnake like himself. The people in the saloon that sat at the tables came him a few looks, but again the mostly did not pay attention to him. The bartender at the bar soon noticed Jake coming towards him and was a bit fearful of his presence at first, but remained calm trying not to start anything. He hoped the snake came in nothing more then just a drink. The bartender was a desert hare and had huge floppy ears that draped over his head and on to his shoulders. The cloths he wore were not all the great either, just a dirty torn up sleeveless shirt and torn up pants.

Once Jake got to the bar, the hare bartender try to treat just like any other customer.

"So what will it be?" said the bartender leads he hands on the bar counter.

"Cactus juice." Jake just muttered out.

Without another word the hare bartender reached behind the bar counter and pulled out a empty glass and a bottle of cactus juice and passed over to Jake. After that, the hare bartender went back to his daily business of attending to the other customers. Jake poured himself a glass and drank it quickly; the sting of the liquor burned his throat. Then Jake decided it was better to sit at a table and soon found himself one that was still empty in a corner. As Jake settled him at the table and lightly drank his cactus juice, he watched the people in the saloon go about their business. He saw many various types of rodent and reptile critters huddled around small tables drinking bottles of liquor or playing games of cards and constantly going in and out of the saloon.

Suddenly another rattlesnake appeared in the saloon; Jake took notice and was kind of surprised to see another rattlesnake here. Its scales were a light tan color, almost like the color of sand and the diamond pattern on its back was a rusty reddish brown and its eyes were a bright blue color. Jake suspected this rattlesnake was female and eyed her with interest as she made her way to the bar. The hare bartender greeted the female rattlesnake with a smile on his face; he did not seem to be afraid of her as he was with Jake. She seemed to well known among the townsfolk here.

Soon the hare bartender said to the female rattlesnake "good day, Lolita, how you been?"

"Fine, you?" the female rattlesnake said back to the bartender.

"Same as usual. Can I get you anything?' said the bartender again.

"Cactus juice please." said the female rattlesnake.

After that, the bartender brought out an empty glass and another bottle of cactus juice.

"There you are, mayhem." said the bartender as he passed the bottle and glass to the female rattlesnake.

The female rattlesnake just nodded her head a little in thank you.

The female rattlesnake soon noticed Jake staring at her and turned towards him, Jake quickly tried to avert his eyes by lowering he head to hide them with the rim of his hat, but it was too late.

"Who is that handsome fellow over there?" Lolita said as she turned back towards the bartender.

"Don't know, he just came into town today." said the bartender.

Then the bartender leaned in closer to Lolita with his arm leaning on the counter and a hand near is mouth, speaking in almost a whisper. "but if I were you, I would avoid him, he looks like a real shady character to me."

"Pff. Please, he doesn't look that scary to me. Besides I have handled tougher rattlesnakes in my time, I can handle myself." said Lolita

"Okay, didn't say I didn't warn ya:" the bartender said as he leaned away from Lolita

Then Lolita decided to meet this new stranger and started to make her way towards him. Once Jake saw the female rattlesnake come towards him, he began to get really nervous, he heart rate began to quicken a little and he felt himself turn red in the face.

"_Dammit, keep your cool Jake, no need to get yourself worked up over a female like some silly schoolboy."_ Jake thought to himself.

Soon the female rattlesnake came right up next to Jake and looked at him seductively with his eyes. Jake still tried to hide his eyes with his hat.

"I haven't seen a fellow rattlesnake like you around here, you must be new here." said Lolita leaning in trying to get jake to look at her.

"Yeah, I am." Jake muttered out still keeping his head low.

"now, come on. Let see that handsome face of yours under that hat." Lolita said.

Jake finally brought up the courage to face the female rattlesnake directly and learned up his head towards her. Soon their eyes meet and they stared deeply into each other eyes. As Jake stared into Lolita's eyes, he thought her eyes were the most beautiful bight blue eyes he had ever seen and Lolita stared into Jake's bight crimson and yellow eyes like they were mesmerizing. To her his eyes were not scary or intimidating at all. Soon they were both entranced into each other glaze.

Then Lolita finally brought the silence and said "do you have a name, mister?

Jake snapped back to reality and said "uhhh….Jake."

"Mine's Lolita." said the female rattlesnake.

"So what a fellow like you doing in this town?" Lolita said again.

"Just came here for a quick rest stop" Jake said again.

As the two continued to stare at each other, there was a sudden outburst of noise outside the saloon, the sounds of gun fire and shouting. Some of the people in the saloon got up to look out the windows to see what all the noise was.

"Oh Christ, now what?" Lolita said was threw he head back and rolled her eyes.

Then Lolita moved away from Jake and went outside the saloon to take care of whoever was making all that noise. Jake was a little confused now and soon quickly followed behind Lolita. He stopped at the entrance of the saloon to find all that ruckus was a band of lowly bandits picking on a poor helpless soul, the poor critter was face down in the ground and the bandits were kicking him and rolling him around in the dirt and Lolita raced towards them to intervene. She soon slithered in front of the poor citizen they were picking on and faced the bandits head on.

"Why don't you leave this poor man alone and pick on some one your own size?" Lolita said to the bandits.

"Gladly, you be more fun for us anyway." One the bandits in the group said.

Lolita then gestured to the helpless man on the ground that now was his change to escape, he did so, quickly getting up off the ground and ran away as fast as he could. The bandits were now fully focused on the female rattlesnake. The bandits soon surrounded her and she hissed at them angrily. This fight was drawing a bit of a crowd now; the townspeople were watching and keeping a respectable distance away. Jake was watching with real interest too, he wanted to see how this fight would play out. Soon all the bandits drew their guns and started firing them at Lolita, but deliberately missing just to piss her off even more. She bared her fangs and made strikes at them, but they kept dodging out the way just in time. Soon they started running around her while continuing firing the guns. They're constant moving made even harder for Lolita to get a clear strike at any one of them and it only seemed to make her even madder. Suddenly one the bandits pulled out a rope, threw it in the air and managed to lasso it around her neck and with unimaginable strength, the bandit pulled her head to the ground. She let a loud hiss as her head hit the ground hard. Some the bandits hooped and hollered after they brought the rattlesnake down. Now the bandits had the advantage, with her head pinned to the ground, she could not strike. Jake soon saw that the bandits were ganging up on her and immediately raced towards them. He was not usually one in get involved in other people's fights, but this time he had no choice, he would not refuse to help to own kind in need.

"Hey! You leave her alone!" Jake shouted as he raced towards the bandits.

Once the bandits saw Jake coming they immediately dropped what they were doing and starting to run away. Jake hissed furious at them to make sure they did not come back. Then he turned towards Lolita, who was slowly raising her head back up and coughing from the dusty dirt. The townspeople who were watching were a bit awestruck to see this shady looking outlaw would actually go out his way to save someone else.

Jake tore away the rope that was around her neck and then said "are you alright?'

After coughing a bit more, Lolita finally said "yeah, I'm fine. Thank you, mister Jake. If you had not come, they might have got me."

"T'was nothing." said Jake lightly nodding his head to her.

Then suddenly Lolita gave Jake a light kiss on his cheek. Once she drew back, Jake eyes went wide and his jaw dropped a little and he could feel himself start to go red in the face again. Lolita just giggled a little bit at him.

"In a way, you saved my life and a very grateful for that." said Lolita.

In that moment, Jake knew they were going to be more then just friends. Jake liked her a lot and so did she. It was like love at first sight, Jake normally did not believe in things like love, but there something special about this female rattlesnake that made his cold heart melt every time he looked into those brilliant blue eyes of hers.

Soon after, the crowd of townspeople went back to their daily business and Lolita and Jake went back into the saloon to hang out for the rest of the day. They both drank themselves happily and talked about their daily lives, Jake kept his vague though, he did not want anyone to know about his past. Lolita did most of the talking anyway; she rambled on how she came to this town and was sort of a peacekeeper here, not exactly a sheriff, but still kept things from getting too out of hand. The mayor of the town gave her that duty since she was a rattlesnake, not many people wanted to challenge her. She did not mind really, she liked helping out those that were less fortunate that her.

As the day draw on to evening, they decided to leave the saloon and go for a nice stroll out in the desert under the evening light. As they both continued slithered on into the desert, Lolita started to get frisky and tempted Jake to playfully chase her. Suddenly Lolita bolted though the sand and Jake soon followed her, pretending to caught her. Soon they were racing and dancing with each other though the sandy dunes of the desert under the moonlight. For the first time in his life, Jake actually felt happy and did not want it to ever end. Soon they tired themselves though out the night and decided to settle themselves down for the night in a small cave not far from town. They were soon sound asleep entangled in each other's loving embrace.

Five months later.

Five months have passed since Jake and Lolita first met, they were soon married and set up a home for themselves on the outskirts of Lolita's home town, just a simple house with a kitchen, a small living room and two bedrooms, it was not much, but it was good enough for them. But soon to be a bigger family, Lolita was showing signs of pregnancy and was to due to give birth in a few months time. Jake soon became an outlaw for hire and was often called away on jobs to take out unwanted or troublesome people in other towns; Jake often had to travel far and sometimes would be away for days. Lolita did often worry about Jake while he was away, she knew what kind of jobs he did and often worried he might he hurt or even killed. But now she had grown more irritated then worried with Jake, he was spending more and more time away of his jobs then with her, she did not like the way things were going. While Jake was away, she continued to her job in her town, but now that she was pregnant and had a house to take of, it made her job much harder to do. She really wished Jake would stay here in her town and help her out, but it was of no use. Something had to change before it was too late.

One day, Jake came home late from one of his jobs, he slithered though the door into the kitchen with a jug of water wrapped in his coils, and Lolita was already in the kitchen waiting for him making dinner. Jake placed the jug of water on a table and leaned towards Lolita and gave her a light kiss on the cheek

"Evening, hun, how was your day?' Jake said as he pulled away from Lolita

"The usual." She said back to Jake.

Suddenly Lolita gave Jake a very angry look. At first Jake was a little confused on why she suddenly had gotten angry with him, then he noticed she was looking at his tail gun and once he turned towards it, he noticed that a little bit of blood was splattered on it, then realized that was what she was angry about. He went quickly to whap the blood off with his tongue.

"Jake, went are you going to stop this?' Lolita said a little frustrated.

Jake let out a frustrated sigh and rolled her eyes as he turned his head towards her.

"Hun, please, we been thought this…it's my job, it's what I do." said Jake

"What? Killing innocent people for money? That's blood money and you know it." Lolita said as she pointed towards the jug of water on the table.

"It puts food on the table, doesn't it?" Jake said back in an more angry voice.

"Even so, I don't want our children to grow in that kind of world." Lolita said angrily back

"Look, I'm sorry everything ain't perfect! But if you have not noticed, were rattlesnakes and I'm an outlaw, it's not like a can just stroll into town and ask for a normal desk job!" Jake started to shout.

"But I don't want you to be an outlaw anymore! I want you to stop killing people!" Lolita started to shout back.

"I do it because I don't have a choice! I do so we can survive!" Jake shouted again leaning closer to Lolita giving her the angriest glare ever with his fiery eyes.

Not the least bit intimidated, Lolita shouted back "no, you do have a choice! You could walk away from that if you wanted too!"

"Ungrateful women, I work hard all day and this is the thanks I get." Jake said furiously.

After that, Jake quickly slithered out the door from the kitchen and slammed the door hard with his tail gun as he left.

Once Jake was gone, tears started to stream down Lolita's face. This was not the first time they gotten into an argument and it always ended with Jake leaving and her crying, she hated for what Jake had become now. she felt their relationship was quickly falling apart, she wished she had never set eyes on him and thought he would the perfect mate for her, she should of seen him for nothing more then a cold hearted killer. Lolita soon set in for the night and cried herself to sleep, Jake never returned home that night.

In the morning, Jake was called once more to do another job in another town; so he left the town without even saying goodbye to Lolita. This time he was not going to come back.


	2. Ch 1: Alone

An Outlaw's legacy

Chapter 1: Alone

It was another blazing hot day in the Mojave Desert; the sun was at its peak of the day and cooked everything on the ground in the sandy landscape. Mostly everything was withered and dry from the intense heat and little rain. Very little life existed here, the only plant life that existed here were a few dry scrub brushes and Joshua trees scattered throughout the landscape. Same for the animal life, not many animals lived in this harsh environment and those that did would have to be very tough to survive out here. In this vast dry landscape there lay a small town, it was a old rugget looking town, most of the building were made from garage that was found scattered though out the desert left behind by humans, while some the building were made from wood, but the wood had been chipped and worn away by the sand over time and they looked they were on the verge on falling down. The town was called Hell's Pitt, it was named that for good reason, only the toughest and meanest creatures from the desert lived in this town. Most of the resistance were outlaws and wanted criminals. This town mostly served as a rest stop for outlaws while traveling though the desert, a place for them to rest and recover or to restock supplies if they needed too. The town seemed to be almost empty now, very few townsfolk were wandering though the dirt paths, most of them stayed inside the saloon or their own rooms is the lodge in the town to escape the heat of the day.

Then the grim reaper of the west came into the town, Rattlesnake Jake. Jake did not come to this town for a fight or take another helpless soul with him. He came here to just get a good rest from a long day of traveling and restock on ammo for his tail gun. Once he slithered into the town, he did get a few looks from the few townsfolk that remained outside, but then they soon went back to their business. Jake frequently visited this town, as well as other rattlesnakes, so seeing one here was not uncommon. Since most of the people here were outlaws like Jake was, they did not fear him as much, but they still gave him plenty of space. Jake headed towards the saloon in the town first before doing anything else to get a cool drink from his long day of traveling. Then just when he about to enter the saloon something soft hit on his side, a little annoyed Jake turned around to see what it was. It was a baby rattlesnake, apparently the kid was racing though the street and was not watching were he was going and accidently bumped into Jake. As Jake stared down at the tiny rattlesnake with his bright fiery eyes, the baby rattlesnake started to coil up and tremble in fear. Jake could see the child was afraid of him, Jake started to make a gesture that he would not harm him, but then another rattlesnake that appeared to the child's mother quickly raced towards Jake, wrapped her coils around her child and hissed loudly in Jake's face. Jake wanted to say something, but he decided not too, he didn't feel like getting into a fight. So then he slowly turned away from the female rattlesnake as she continued to glare at him angrily.

As Jake continued to head his way in to the saloon, he could hear the mother rattlesnake say to her child "Stay away from him, son. He is a monster."

Monster. That word struck a cord deep within Jake, he had been called that name before, along with the nickname grim reaper of the west, but to hear his own kind call him that hurt him deeply. So it seemed that his reputation as the most dangerous outlaw in the west had gone so far that he was even shunned by his own kind now. A sober expression grew over Jake's face.

Jake soon pushed his way though the swinging doors of the saloon and made his way inside. The saloon as a bit crowded, this was where most of everyone hanged out during the day, there small groups of various rodent and reptile creatures huddled around small tables drinking glasses of cactus juice and whiskey or playing a card game of poker. There some townsfolk at the bar too, happily drinking the day away, one of them seemed to be passed out from all the alcohol it consumed. As Jake made his way towards the bar, he got few looks from the people in the saloon, but they mostly kept to their own business, mostly out of fear if someone even gave him a bad look, he might kill them. As Jake found an empty stop at the bar, the bartender was waiting for him; the bartender was a gila monster and was not surprised in the slightest by Jake's presence. The bartender knew Jake well from his many visits here and they had become quite accustomed with each other, the bartender knew Jake meant no harm when he came in here.

As Jake slithered up to the bar, the bartender said "long time no see, Jake, how you been keepin' these days?"

"Fine" Jake just said to the bartender.

Then the bartender noticed Jake had a sober expression sand soon said " you look like you could use a drink."

"Yeah" said Jake lowering his head a little.

"The usual I suppose" said the bartender.

"That would be fine." said Jake

Then the bartender turned his back towards Jake to the shelves that were in the back of the bar that held various bottles of alcohol. The bartender soon turned back towards Jake with an empty glass and a bottle of his finest whiskey. Once the bartender put the glass and bottle down on the bar counter, Jake poured himself a glass and drank it quickly; the bitter taste of the liquid stinging his throat, the drink had bit of a kick to it, which is what Jake liked about it. Jake soon poured himself another glass, the bartender soon noticed something was bothering Jake, but he decided not to press the issue and soon went back to attending to the other people at the bar.

Soon Jake decided that the bar was too crowded for him and took himself with his bottle of whiskey to a table in the corner that was still empty. He soon settled himself down next to the table and continued to drink his whiskey watching the rest of the townsfolk in the saloon go about their business. He soon thought on the baby rattlesnake again and what the female rattlesnake had said. "he is a monster." Those words continue to ring in Jake's head. Is that what the whole world though of him? A monster? But really who could blame them? He had killed so many people in his past; he had left a gruesome bloody trail behind him. That reputation gave him the one creature to most afraid of, but it also made him the loneliness too. It didn't matter; most of time Jake liked being left alone, but sometimes it took its toll on him. He had no one to love him or even have a normal conversation with. He did not deny the fact he liked to have a family on his own some day, just to continue on his legacy, but he knew that was impossible now, he was even shunned by own kind now, no rattlesnake would ever want him and they would see him as nothing else but a heartless monster. He figured then that he was destined to be alone forever, to continue to live his life alone and to die alone. To soon fade into obscurity as if no one remembered him. That was the price of being an outlaw.

As the day wearied on into the evening, the saloon began to empty; the people who left either continued on their traveling or went to their rooms for the night. Jake continued to sit at his table and drink is misery away. By the time the day fell into night, the saloon was completely empty, only Jake and the bartender remained. Jake had managed to down the whole bottle of whiskey though out the course of the day and was drunk as a skunk. The bartender noticed Jake was still there and that something was really bothering him. Since the saloon was empty now, the bartender would have time to talk to him, he was not really one for chit chat, but he decided Jake needed someone to talk to anyway. The gila monster bartender pulled up a chair at Jake's table and sat down slumping his elbow on the table and crossing his legs and brought out a cigar to smoke. Jake knew he was there, but did not pay much attention to him.

After sucking on his cigar for a little while and letting out a huge puff of smoke, the bartender finally say "so Jake, what gots you down?"

At first Jake said nothing back, then despite being in a drunken stupor, it said "what do you do when the whole world turns its back on you?"

After sucking on his cigar a bit more and letting out another puff of smoke, the bartender said back "mmm…that is a tough question."

After thinking it over a bit, the bartender said again "I'm not really one to say, but maybe rather not that the whole world turned its back on you, but you turned your back on the world."

Jake just let out a grunt in response.

But as Jake thought about it more, what the bartender had said was kind of true, even before he had the reputation of being a famous outlaw; he avoided everyone around him because of who he was. No one cared or had sympathy for him, so he was the same way towards others, always uncaring and cold. But there was one person he thought of that had given him even an ounce of respect, Rango. He was the sheriff of the town of Dirt, even since that day they meet and he saved his life from that backstabbing mayor of the town, they had gained a mutual respect for each other as legends of the west. Even since that day, Jake had not returned to that town because he had no reason too. He wondered how his so called "brother" was doing and how he was holding up as sheriff. He thought of going back to the town just to see if he had changed any the last time they met and also mostly just to harass the hell out of him. Really that was the only enjoyment he got out his life anymore.

Finally, the bartender finished smoking his cigar and got up from his chair and spoke to Jake "well, you better leave as well. I have to close up here."

Jake reluctantly slithered away from his table and out the door of the saloon, not without bumping into a few table and chairs first from his drunkenness. It was in the middle of the night, Jake was too tired and dizzy to continue on traveling, so he decided to look for a place to sleep for the night. He looked for an empty secluded spot in the town where he would not be bothered by anyone. His vision was blurry from being drunk so he kept bumping into wooden posts as he moved though the town and cursed at himself every time he did so. Finally he found an abandoned broken down shack at the edge of the town, it was just big enough for him to fit inside. He slithered inside and coiled himself up into a tight ball, rested he head on his coiled up body. He decided tomorrow he would reload on ammo and then go back to the town of Dirt, but now he needed sleep. It was not long before he was fast asleep.

The next day Jake woke up with a splitting headache and took a while to make himself get up for the day. By early afternoon he finally decided to stop wasting time and get on the move again. He slithered out of his resting place and first, went to the gun and ammo shop that was in the town, this was the only shop that Jake knew of that carried the ammo for his specific type of gun. The caretaker of the shop gave Jake no trouble in giving Jake his ammo, the caretaker of the gun shop had gotten pretty used to the appearance of Jake as well. After finishing at the gun shop, Jake made is way out of the town and started traveling in the direction of the town of Dirt.

The town of Dirt was a small town, but a propitious one. It once was known as the town of misery, but now it was no longer that ever since the demise of the corrupt mayor of the town, tortoise john and a scrawny chameleon by the name of Rango permanently began the sheriff of the town. Also because of Rango the town had plenty of water to go around, so if you needed water, the town of Dirt was the place to go, since it was the only known town in the Mojave desert to have a main water source, many more people started coming to the town, along with trading with other towns and that is how the town soon become propitious as it is today. Many of the building in the town still needed to be rebuilt after the sudden flood from the water piles in the town, but it was being rebuilt much better then it was before.

Things were pretty quiet lately in the town too, even since Rango became sheriff, no major trouble came to the town again. Things were getting so dull, rango was actually getting bored of his job as sheriff, he even thought about quitting, but he stayed, mostly because no one else in the town wanted to take up the job. Beans became the new mayor of the town, and did the job brilliantly, she made sure everyone got their fare share of water and supplies and if anyone had problems, she would see to it to have it sorted out.

It was another dull hot day in the town and most if the town's people were hanging out at the saloon. Soon both Rango and Beans both walked in the saloon. Rango was a little irritated that it was going another long boring day for him. Soon they both sat at the bar to have a few drinks. The toad bartender immediately gave them glasses of cactus juice as they sat down.

As Rango lightly sipped at his glass, he finally said "I'm getting sick of these dull days, I wish something would happen."

"Like what?" said beans turning her head towards him.

"I don't know….something." Rango said back.

"Well, if I were you, I'd be glad this town is finally peaceful for once and consider yourself lucky you're the sheriff that has lived the longest in this town." said Beans back in a slightly angry voice.

"I know, still I like to have some excitement once in a while." said Rango after taking another snip from his glass.

"Would rather have the outlaws come back, like bad bill or even….rattlesnake Jake?" Beans said turning fully towards Rango now.

Rango gulped a little bit at that thought.

"Ummm….no, not really, but still something." said Rango.

Suddenly, Priscilla, a small desert mouse, came rushing into the saloon and immediately went towards Rango. Once she got to him, she frantically tucked on his pants to get his attention.

"Rango! Rango!" Priscilla shouted.

"whoa! Easy there, little sister, what's the problem?" Rango said as he leaned down towards Priscilla.

After gasping for breath, Priscilla spoke out " Wounded bird wants you. He says it is urgent."

"Well, I will just see what the problem is then, thanks, little sister." Rango said as he got up from his seat.

Then he slightly adjusting his belt and he hat, he walked out of the saloon, Priscilla and beans stayed behind.

Rango soon climbed to the top of the watch tower in town, Wounded bird was often here to keep a look out of any danger that might come towards town.

As Rango stood next to Wounded bird, he asked "so, what is the problem?"

As wounded bird continued to look out into the horizon, he just said "I see snake."

Fear soon appeared in Rango's eyes and he gulped a little bit.

Finally he said "It is….ummm….rattlesnake Jake?"

"Too far to tell, but probably." Wounded bird said back.

Rango soon too looked out over the desert landscape and he soon saw it too, a dark silhouette shape of a snake appeared just over the horizon and was heading towards town. It was still to far away to tell if was rattlesnake Jake or not, but he did want to take any changes.

Rango immediately rushed back down the watch tower and back in the saloon, he was a little out of breath by the time he got back to the saloon.

Beans turned around in her seat as rango reenter the saloon out of breath and she soon said "what's wrong?"

As rango tried to catch his breath "It's…rattlesnake Jake….he might be coming back to town."

The whole crowd in the saloon heard him and immediately let out gasps of fear.

"Now don't panic! I will handle this. Everyone just stay inside." Rango said as raised his arms and waved them in the air.

Rango quickly took another drink of cactus juice and then made sure his pistol was fully loaded and then went out of the saloon again, but before he could do so, beans held him back by one of his arms.

"Be careful." Beans said

"You know I will." Rango said as he turned to her and tipped his hat a little to her.

Beans then let go of his arm and he continued out of the saloon.

Rango stood out in the middle of the dirt street waiting of the rattler to appear. Of course, he was still some what fearful of Jake, but he was the sheriff of the town after all, it was his job to protect it. He made his hand ready to put out his gun should the confrontation get ugly, thought he hoped it wouldn't. Rango wondered why Jake had suddenly come back after all this time. He thought things were settled between them and that he would most likely never come back, but apparently that was not the case, Jake thought he could have more fun out of harassing this town.

Rango soon saw the rattler approaching the town, he stood firm with a determined look on his face, but as the snake got closer, something was odd, the snake was a lot smaller then he remembered and was missing his hat he always wore. Soon enough the snake was only a few feet from Rango, the snake soon stopped and stare at him, Rango did the same. As the snake was close enough now, Rango looked him over, this snake was a lot smaller then Jake, did not have the sleek black hat, nor the ammo belts that were strapped along to his body, nor the gun at the end of his tail, just a normal rattlesnake rattle was in its place, but yet he had those same dark colored scales and those same bight fiery eyes. This was clearly not Jake, but who was this stranger? Why did he look like Jake, but yet not him? Rango continued to stand firm and had his hand ready at his gun, he was still unsure whether this stranger was friend or foe.

After a while, the smaller snake finally spoke out "Ummm...pardon me, mister. I didn't to cause trouble to your town; I'm just looking for someone."

Then Rango let out a sigh of relief as he relaxed his body and drew his hand away from his gun. Clearly the snake was not a threat.

"Oh, it's no trouble at all. Who are looking for? Maybe I can help?" Rango said back to the snake.

"I'm looking of a rattlesnake by the name of Jake, have you seen him pass this way?" the younger rattler said as he came a little closer to Rango.

After Rango let out a little gasp at that name, he said " umm…not recently."

"Oh okay then, I'll be leaving now, sorry to trouble you, sir.' The young snake said as he turned to leave.

Then Rango quickly jumped back in front of the snake and said " wait! I can help you, I can help you find him if you want."

"Do you know him?" said the young rattler as he tilted his head to one side.

"We've meet." Rango said

"While I do thank you for your generosity, mister. I rather find him on my own. "said the young rattler as he continued to slither pass Rango.

Then Rango quickly walked in front the snake again said "wait! You don't have to leave, Jake as been to this town before, he might come back."

"No, really, I don't want to cause any trouble to your town." said the young rattler trying to get out of Rango's way.

"It's no trouble at all, you can stay here if your looking for Jake." said Rango.

The young rattler signed a little bit and then said "Are your sure he will come back?"

"Yeah, I'm sure" said Rango.

"Okay, I will stay, but only if you help me find him." said the young rattler as he turned back towards town.

To be honest, Rango was unsure if Jake was ever going to come back to this town, but he wanted to find out who the stranger rattlesnake was and why he wanted to find Jake.

Meanwhile, everyone that was in the saloon looked out though the windows at Rango and the rattlesnake and were just as puzzled as Rango was. This rattlesnake looked a lot like Jake, but it was not him.

Soon Rango shouted out to everyone in the saloon that it was safe to come out. Soon enough, everyone reluctantly went outside to greet their strange new comer. Everyone crowed around next to Rango and the snake. Beans soon walked up next to Rango. Everyone was still a bit weary about this newcomer since he was a rattlesnake.

Rango soon turned back towards the young snake and said "by the way, I don't think I got your name?"

At first the young snake was a little nervous about giving his name to this stranger, but then he thought there no harm in it.

"Joshua." said the young snake.

"The name's rango and welcome to Dirt. Sorry about the rude welcoming earlier. " rango said as he lightly tipped his hat to the young snake.

"It's okay, it's understandable" said Joshua.

"This is beans, she is the mayor of the town. "as he pointed towards beans who was right beside him.

"Nice to meet you, mayhem." Joshua said as he turned towards beans.

Beans was a little taken aback, she did not expect such words coming from a rattlesnake. This rattlesnake was surprisingly polite, not as cocky and rude as the other rattlesnakes.

Rango soon introduced Joshua to the other major citizens of the town and after that, Rango decided give him a tour of the town while everyone else went back to their daily business. It was a short tour since the town was still quite small, but Joshua found this town very interesting. Later, Rango set up Joshua a room at the small hotel inn in the town. At first, Joshua refused it, but rango insisted and soon enough the young rattler gave in to the chameleon's generosity.

Though out the rest of the day, Joshua hanged out at the saloon. He was still too young to drink, but wanted to hang out here anyway since this the liveliest place to be. Joshua just sat an empty table in the corner of the saloon, happily watching the people go about their daily lives. Most of the people of the town got used to his presence, though he still got a few nervous looks from people. Soon Rango came towards him and sat down next to him to give some company.

"I take it this town does get many visits from my kind very often." said Joshua as continue to look at the crowd in the saloon.

"Actually, we do, just the bad kind." Rango said as he poured himself a glass of cactus juice he had brought with him.

Joshua let out a irritated snort at that comment.

After a while, Rango and Joshua did not speak to each other, Rango soon became nervous as he fiddled with his glass in his hands, like he wanted to ask something. Joshua soon noticed his nervousness and gave a bit of an irritated look. If he wanted to say something, he better say it and get it over with.

Finally rango brought up enough courage to ask and said "so what do you want with Jake anyway?"

Joshua quickly turned his head towards Rango and spat out "that is my business alone."

As Joshua said that, he gave Rango an angry glare, almost the same glare Jake had given him with those bright fiery eyes of his. The stare made Rango move back a little.

"Okay, sorry I asked, geez." Rango said lowering his head.

Rango decided not the press the issue farther, since this younger rattler had no intentions of telling anyone what he wanted with Jake. The rest of the day was spent of them making needless chit chat, Joshua soon warmed up to Rango again and his fowl mood soon had disappeared. Soon the day turned into evening and everyone started going home for the night. Rango soon went to bean's ranch with beans in toe behind him and Joshua went to his room at the inn. The room Joshua stayed in was pretty small and plain, it held nothing more then a bed, big enough for a rattlesnake to fit in, a small night stand next to it, a small dresser placed on the other side of the room and one window to look outside. Joshua did not mind, all he wanted was a warm place to sleep. Joshua soon settled himself in the bed, curling up into a tight ball under the blanket and was fast asleep in minutes.

Rango promised he would help him find Jake tomorrow, but really they did not need to look for him or wait for him long.


	3. Ch 2: unexpected reunion

A Outlaw's legacy Ch. 2

Unexpected reunion

The first rays of sunlight were peaking though the window of Joshua's room and were shining on the bed Joshua was sleeping in. The rays of light disturbed him and started to wake him up. Joshua moved farther under the cover of his blanket to try to avoid the sunlight, but it was no use. Joshua finally decided to wake up for the day, he lifted his head from under the covers and let out a big yawn, then sluggishly slithered his body out of the bed. He slowly made his way down the stairs and into the main lobby of the inn, on one else seemed to be up yet, so Joshua decided to go to the kitchen in the inn to make himself some breakfast.

Joshua was old enough to know to cook his own breakfast. He soon brought out some bread from a cupboard and made two thin slices and put them in the toaster. Then brought out a frying pan to cook some bacon and eggs on the stove. All of this was a little hard for him to do since he just had his mouth the grab stuff and no hands, but he managed. He also tried to be quiet as possible as not wake anybody else up. Once he was done cooking and eating his breakfast, he decided to sit out on the pouch of the inn and wait for Rango to return. Rango said he was going to help Joshua find rattlesnake Jake today and Joshua would make sure he kept his word. As Joshua sat out on the pouch, he soon saw that the rest of the town was starting to wake up for the day. People started to open up their shops while people started coming into town on wagons and walked around the town doing their daily morning chores. Joshua got a few good mornings from the people as they passed by him and Joshua returned the gesture, which was kind of surprising for him. He never expected the people in this town to be so friendly to him so quickly. Finally, he saw Rango come into town with beans on her wagon. Joshua immediately went over towards him to greet him. Soon Rango got off of bean's wagon and once he turned around, he found himself staring face to face with the young rattlesnake which made Rango jump at little, he was still no used to seeing a rattlesnake in town.

"Oh, it's just you, morning Joshua," Rango said while trying to calm himself down.

"Morning sheriff." Joshua said back politely.

"What can I do for ya today?" Rango said again.

"You said you would help me find rattlesnake Jake today." Joshua said in a sort irritated tone.

"Oh yeah, I did. " Rango said in a disappointing tone.

Then Rango turned towards beans who was still on her wagon and said "sorry dear, but I got to deal with this now. I'll probably be gone all day."

Then beans gave an angry stare towards Joshua while Joshua gave back the expression of "what the hell you looking at?" towards Beans.

Then beans said in an angry tone towards Rango "fine, do what you need to do, just be back in time for supper."

"Yes dear." Rango said.

And with that, Beans snapped at the reins for her boar to make him pull the wagon forward once more. Once Beans pulled away on her wagon, Joshua approached Rango and said " I take it she does not like me very much."

"Nah, she just upset because today was supposed to our day." Rango said while turning towards Joshua.

Whatever was between them too, Joshua did not really care, he just wanted to hurry up on the search for Jake.

"So where do we start looking for rattlesnake Jake?" Joshua said.

"Alright, just let me get a roadrunner set up and we will be off." Rango said.

Then Rango and Joshua walked towards the general store where some roadrunners were hitched up, but before they could anything else, Priscilla came running down the dirt road frantically and towards Rango again.

Once she got to Rango, he leaned down to her eye level said " whoa! What is all the fuss about this time, little sister?"

In between gasps for breath, Priscilla stuttered out "it's….rattlesnake… Jake…he's coming this way!"

"Are you sure it is him this time and not another stranger snake?" Rango said.

"No! It is definitely him this time!" Priscilla said pointing out towards the road.

"Oh boy" Rango said nervously as stood back up again.

Rango then turned around towards Joshua and said "well, if you wanted to meet Jake, now here's you chance."

"Finally." Joshua said in an angry tone.

Joshua's anger worried Rango now, now he was thinking that maybe he had some kind of grudge or vengeance against Jake and that he was going to fight him. If that was his plan was, he really was in no condition to fight being much smaller then Jake. Rango had to make sure it did not come to that.

Word soon spread though out the town that rattlesnake Jake was coming back. Most of the people in the town retreated into their homes and stores, much of the town still feared Jake. Rango and Joshua continued to stay outside and waited for Jake to appear. Soon they both walked towards the edge of town. Rango already had his gun with him fully loaded and was ready to pull it out if he needed too. Once the reached the edge of town, they stood still firmly, waiting for Jake to appear. Joshua soon had an angry and determined expression on his face, almost like Jake would have.

"Are you sure you want to meet him? He's a pretty nasty character." Rango said to Joshua

"Don't worry, I can handle myself." said Joshua towards Rango.

Rango said nothing more.

Soon enough, the silhouette of Jake appeared on the horizon. Rango and Joshua both continued to stand firm with cold expressions of their faces. Within minutes Jake was only a few feet from them. He had is full attention on Rango, looking at him the same sinister expression he always had and didn't even notice the younger rattlesnake standing beside him.

"Hello, 'bother' how you been keeping?" Jake said has he slithered even closer towards Rango.

"Oh, I been fine and you?" Rango said with a stern expression on his face, trying not to show any sign of fear.

"Never better." Jake said now coming inches away from Rango's face.

"What business do you have here now? Come to start up trouble again?" Rango said

"I just came to see how you been keeping these days." Jake said in a cold sly voice.

Rango obviously didn't believe him, he knew he come to stir up trouble. Rango would have to make Jake leave somehow. It was his town after all, he had to protect it. Rango had his hand ready on his gun in its holster in case it had to use force. Of course, Jake noticed this.

"What are you gonna do? Try an shoot me again?" said Jake

"If I have too, yes." Rango said again.

Jake just let out an evil chuckle.

Meanwhile, Joshua just stood by completely appalled that Jake had not even noticed him. He soon grew very irritated by Jake ignoring him and quickly slithered between Rango and Jake, almost knocking Rango over and made Jake back off a little bit.

Once both their eyes met, they both stood staring at each other wide eyed and mouth open. For Joshua, it was just like how his mother had described to him, sleek looking black hat, cold and sinister appearance and crimson red eyes that seemed to burn like the fiery pits of hell. For Jake, it was looking at a younger version of himself, this snake had his same dark colored pattern of scales and those same bright fiery eyes. For a second, he thought he was in a dream and that his childhood had come back to haunt him. He started to get a bit scared. Rango, meanwhile, was utterly confused, he had no idea what was going on, but he still had his hand on his gun thinking they might start to fight.

Finally, Jake snapped back to reality and his expression turned angry and he said to the younger rattlesnake "and just who the hell are you?"

Joshua expression turned to stern again and he said "I'm your son."

Then both Jake and Rango went wide eyed and let out a gasp in surprise.

"I never knew _you_ had family, Jake." said Rango nervously.

"I don't!" Jake angrily spat at Rango.

Then Jake turned back to Joshua and got mere inches from his face, but Joshua was not intimidated.

"Listen, I don't know who you are or where you came from, but you aren't my son! I never had one!" Jake shouted at Joshua.

"Ma knew you would say that." Joshua said sadly.

"And just who is she?" Jake said again.

"Lolita" Joshua said in a sad tone.

Jake's anger seemed to drop like a sack of potatoes once he heard that name, then a flood of memories came back into his mind and he started to remember. He remembered a female rattlesnake he had meet in a saloon when he was younger, those beautiful sandy colored scales and bright blue eyes of hers. He remembered that had started a life together, they had set up a house for reach other and then that she was expecting children soon. He also soon remembered how things quickly went sour between them and the day they had an argument and he left her for good. His time with her seemed so brief and it was so long ago that Jake had forgotten about her. This young snake that was staring at him now must be the result of his time with her.

Jake then stared back at Joshua wide eyed and said "you are….my son."

Joshua smiled a little bit and nodded. Then suddenly Joshua quickly swung his tail around and smacked Jake hard in the face. Jake didn't have time to react and was utterly awestruck at what just happened. Rango was shocked too, he was sure they were going to fight now. No one would have enough the guts to slap a dangerous outlaw like Jake in the face or rather lived to tell the tale.

Jake finally came back to his senses and said to Joshua "what the hell was that for?"

"Ma told me to give you a good whopping once I found you." Joshua said

Jake rubbed the side of his face with his tail and said "that is just like her. Where is she now?"

Joshua lowered his head until he was not looking at Jake anymore and in a sad voice he said "Dead. Hawk got her."

Jake's heart sank, he was hoping she was still alive, so he could find her again and tell her he was sorry for leaving her, but now he would never get that chance. If he had know this, he would have never left her, but now he regretted it.

Meanwhile, Rango just stood by watching the whole situation. He soon got the hint they were not going to fight and draw his hand away from his gun. At least he knew now why Joshua wanted to find him so badly, Jake was his father.

Jake was unsure of what to do now, the only love in his life was now dead and left behind a child he would have to take care off now. He did not really want to deal with now and decided the best thing to do was leave. He started to turn away from Joshua and turn the other way to leave the town.

"Hey, where are you going?" Joshua shouted at Jake as he saw turning to leave.

"Away from here." Jake just said as he continued to move away from Joshua.

"Well, you're taking me with you." Joshua said as he started to follow Jake.

"Sorry, kid, but that's not happening." Jake said coldly.

"Why not? If you really are my pa, it's your duty to take care of me." said Joshua angrily who still trying to follow him.

"Not happening." said Jake still trying to get away from Joshua.

"But I have no where else to go!" Joshua said.

"Not my problem." Jake said again.

"It should be, you're the one who left us." Joshua said coldly back.

Jake then swiftly turned around to face Joshua and shouted out "look! I got a reputation to hold up here and I don't need a brat like you mucking it up!"

"But he is your son, you should at least-" Rango tried to say.

"You stay out of this!" Jake spat at rango interrupting him, which made him nearly jump out his skin. He decided to best keep his mouth shut if he didn't want his head bitten off.

Jake then turned back to Joshua and shouted "I certainly don't need a kid in my life right now! So beat it!"

After that, Jake swiftly swung his gun tail at Joshua, but he dodged it. It was mostly just to scare the young rattlesnake off. Then Jake once more turned back around the other way to leave. Joshua did not follow this time, he held an angry expression on his face, but also looked if was about to cry too.

"Ma was right, you nothing but a cold-hearted monster." Joshua said as turned to go in the opposite direction of Jake.

Those words made Jake stop in his tracks, it was that word again, now his own son was calling him that. Then guilt started to set in Jake's mind. Joshua was still too young to hunt of himself or defend himself from other predators. He would certainly be easy pickings for a hawk and what kind of heartless person who he be to abandon his own flesh and blood. Even more, he felt like a dirty rat for abandoning his mate, Lolita, and now his son, the only family he had left.

Rango was unsure of what to do, he wanted to help, but was not sure how. Should go to joshes first to tell him Jake is not as bad as he seemed or go to Jake first to try to convince him to take in his son.

Finally, Jake let out a long sigh and turned back towards Joshua and tried to catch up with him. Once Jake caught up with Joshua, Joshua noticed he was coning back and turned around to face him.

Then Jake spoke out "alright, you can come with me."

Joshua's face instantly brightened up and a smile spread across his face.

"But just until you can fend for yourself." Jake said again.

"That is okay with me" said Joshua still in a happy mood.

Joshua really didn't mind just how long he was going to be with him, he was just happy he had someone to look after him now.

Soon both Jake and Joshua left the town together and Rango watched them go. He was pleased to see things worked out between them, but has he thought about it more, he was not so sure it was such a good idea for Joshua to go with him. Jake was the most dangerous and feared outlaw in the west after all, not exactly father figure material. Now Rango might have to worry about two dangerous rattlesnake outlaws running around.


	4. Ch 3: not easy being dad

An Outlaw's Legacy

Ch 3: not easy being dad

Jake and Joshua continued to travel together on through the desert, as they traveled, Joshua constantly pestered Jake with nonsense questions and Jake was getting annoyed to have to answer them all. Joshua did start to admire Jake a bit despite his scary appearance, Joshua really had no one to look up too until now, in a way he wanted to be like Jake, strong and tough. Joshua looked at the gun that was at the end of his tail, he had noticed the gun when they first met, but he didn't really have the courage to ask him about it until now.

"Where you get the neat looking gun of yours?" Joshua asked polity

"None of your business. Why would you want to know that?" Jake said looking puzzled at Joshua.

"Cos I want to be like you." Joshua said back.

"Hmph, trust me, kid. You don't wanna be like me." Jake said back coldly

:"But your big and strong, on one bothers you." said Joshua.

"Not exactly, anyone that as crosses my path is either afraid of me or wants to kill me, not a life I would wish on some one else." said Jake.

:"it can't be all bad." said Joshua again.

"Trust me, kid. It is." Jake said back.

"But pa…" Joshua started to speak.

"I told you not to call me that." Jake said interrupting Joshua

Then Joshua let out an angry snort and said "well, my name is not kid either, it's Joshua."

Jake just gave him a cold look.

Finally the one question Jake did not like to talk about came up, he did not like to talk about anything about his past, no one knew of his past and he liked to keep it that way.

After gulping a little bit, Joshua finally asked "so how did it happen anyway…your tail I mean?"

Jake gave another cold hard look at Joshua and then just said "fate's cruelty."

Joshua was confused by Jake's answer, he did not known what he meant by that.

"What does that mean?" Joshua asked back nervously.

Then Jake spoke out while not directly looking at Joshua "sometimes bad things happen that you nave no control over."

"And what is that suppose to mean? Did something bad happen to you?" Joshua spoke again.

Then jake suddenly turned to face Joshua furiously and spat out "look! Enough with the questions alright!"

Jake's sudden outburst scared Joshua a little, so he decided it was best to stay quite.

The rest of the journey was mostly made in silence, since Jake shouted at him; he decided it was not the best to not press his luck any farther by asking him more questions. It was clear to Joshua that Jake did not like answering questions about himself. Why was that? Joshua wondered. Was his past so twisted and messed up he did not want to recall it? Joshua would not be a bit surprised if it was, considering his sinister appearance and cruel nature, but still, Joshua was curious to know what had made him that way.

Their journey had taken them the rest of the day; it was not until evening that they had made their final destination. It was a huge rock formation and inside it was a cave which Jake had made his home for now. The cave was not very big, just big for a rattlesnake to fit in, but it craved deep into the rock, deep enough to easily shelter anyone from the elements in the desert. Jake slithered into the cave first and Joshua quickly followed. Once inside, Joshua coiled him up in a spot near the cave wall. Once Jake was sure Joshua was settled down, he then went back outside the cave, Joshua had a kind of surprised look on his face to why Jake was leaving all of a sudden, but soon enough, Jake came back carrying a few sticks in his mouth. Once Jake was back in the cave, he dropped the sticks and started to make fire to keep him warm for the cool desert night ahead. Once Jake got the fire started and brought it up to a huge flame he then turned towards Joshua.

"Tomorrow I'll start teaching you how to hunt and fight." Jake said and then moved to the other end of the cave that was closer to the fire and started to settle himself down for a night's rest.

Jake started to off to sleep, but Joshua was still wide awake and continued to stare at Jake, he soon noticed this and said to him "what's the matter, kid? Go to sleep."

But Joshua did not feel like going to sleep just yet, he felt him and Jake were starting to go off on the wrong foot and saw him more of a annoying pest then anything else, so he wanted to make Jake warm up to him a little bit more.

"ummm….Jake?" Joshua spoke out nervously.

"What?' Jake said sounding irritated.

"Can I have a goodnight kiss?" Joshua said.

Back at his home, his mother would always give him a goodnight kiss before going to sleep and really Joshua could not go to sleep without one.

Jake grumbled a little and then said "okay."

Jake moved over towards Joshua and gave him a quick lick on his nose with his tongue and then went back over to his spot.

As he coiled himself back up, he said to Joshua "now, go to sleep."

Joshua did try to go to sleep, but really he found that difficult, the spot where he was sleeping was rather bumpy, rocky and rough on his underbelly and found himself difficult to get in a comfortable position. He tossed and turned along the ground and Jake could hear him rustling around. All the noise started to irritate Jake and prevented him from going to sleep.

"Hey, kid, knock it off." Jake finally spoke out

"I'm sorry." Joshua said back.

After that, Joshua stopped moving around and tried to go to sleep, but he couldn't, really he wanted to sleep in Jake's spot, the rock over there was a lot smoother and was closer to the fire. He wanted to ask if he could sleep over where he was, but he was afraid too. Soon enough he built up the courage to ask. He quietly slithered over towards Jake, he seemed to be asleep already, but he wanted to ask him anyway. Joshua sneaked up to Jake until he almost touching his nose, Joshua was about to speak, but then Jake slowly opened up one of his eyes again and saw Joshua was very close to him which in turn made me wake up with a start

"Christ, what do you want now?" Jake said angrily at Joshua after being abruptly woken up.

"The rock over there hurts me, can I sleep here?" Joshua said softly

"Oh yeah? Alright." Jake said in a disappointing tone.

After that, Jake and Joshua traded places, Joshua moved in Jake's spot by the fire and Jake moved near where Joshua was.

"dam." Jake muttered under his breath as he coiled himself back in Joshua's spot.

"Now go to sleep will ya?" Jake said as he finally rested his head down again.

Joshua was about to go to sleep, when suddenly he remembered he forgot to say his evening prayer, it was another thing his mother made him do every night before bed and he felt bad for not doing it even if his mother was no longer around. So he woke up again, lifted his head up towards the sky, closed his eyes and began to speck.

"Dear lord, watch over my ma wherever she is now, may she rest peacefully. Thank you for letting me find my pa, even though he is a crouch…"

Joshua tired to speak as quietly and softly as possible, but of course Jake heard him and kept him awake again.

"Oh no…." Jake muttered under his breath again.

Jake lifted his head up again and tried to get Joshua's attention, but he was too deep in thought of his prayer to notice him. After a few minutes Joshua finally finished saying his prayer and laid his head back down to sleep.

"Phew, finally." Jake said as he also rested his head back down once more.

Joshua knew Jake was still awake and so he asked him "Jake, do you think ma can hear me up from heaven?"

"Sure she can, kid. Now just please, please, go to sleep!" Jake said getting very irritated.

A few minutes of silence went by after Jake spoke; he figured the young rattlesnake had finally gone to sleep. Jake finally started to close it eyes, but just as he did so, he could hear Joshua's voice once again.

"Jake?" Joshua said quietly.

"What?" Jake said angrily as he opened one eye again.

"I have to go to the bathroom." Joshua said in almost a whisper.

"*sigh* alright." Jake said back.

Any parent could have told him this was only the beginning.

The next morning, as the sun was just peaking over the horizon of the desert, Joshua started to wake up; he let out a big yawn and a big stretch over his serpentine body. Jake was still very much asleep, Joshua could tell by his soughing, Joshua giggled a little bit a how loudly he soughed. Joshua decided to let Jake sleep for a little longer since he had a rough night last night. As Jake slept, Joshua watched the sunrise from the cave, soon the sun a fully risen over the horizon and everything was bathed in a brilliant golden light, the sky was painted with bight hues of orange, pink and purple. Joshua liked watching the sunrise, it when the desert seemed to be the most beautiful and peaceful. Joshua started to see small critters wandering about in the desert, has Joshua eyed them, he started to get hungry, he wanted to caught one, but he was not very good at it yet. Joshua turned back towards inside the cave; Jake was still asleep, Joshua as tired of waiting for him to get up. He was hungry and wanted to get started for the day.

Joshua moved over towards Jake and carefully nudged Jake's nose with his, but he was still sound asleep. Then he started to nudge him a little harder, still nothing.

"Pa, come on, get up." Joshua said still continuing to nudge him with his nose.

After nudging him a bit more, Joshua finally decided this was not working and would have to be a little more forceful to get him to wake up. So then he started to tug on the rim of his hat with his mouth, but all he got from him was a few mumbles and grunts, he did not open his eyes yet. Joshua tugged harder on his hat, but still he refused to wake.

"Dam, heavy sleeper." Joshua thought to himself.

After another mighty tug of Jake's hat, Joshua suddenly lost his grip and fell backwards a bit. Soon enough Joshua had enough of being subtle; clearly he was going have to do a lot more to get Jake to wake up. Joshua then slammed his body into Jake's face which made him wake up instantly. After recovering from the shock of being abruptly woken up, Jake looked at Joshua with drowsy eyes.

"You promised!" Joshua shouted while looking angrily at Jake.

"Alright. I'm up, I'm up." Jake said sleepily back.

Jake then let out a big yawn and uncoiled himself from his resting spot. Joshua was the first one out of the cave, being bosirious and full of energy and soon Jake sluggishly followed behind him. Joshua soon became excited and started to race between cactus and dry brushes though out the desert ground. Jake did he best he could to try to keep up with this speedy youngster and made sure he stay in sight of him.

Joshua knew if they wanted food for breakfast, they have to catch it first. Now was the perfect time for Jake to teach Joshua how to hunt, but that was easier said then done. They had done several hunting attempts, but they all ended in failure, either because Joshua was not patient enough and made the strike to soon or made too much noise and the prey got away before they had a chance to strike. Jake soon grew frustrated with him and threatened to give up on teaching him how to hunt if he was not patient. Meanwhile, Joshua was getting more desperate, with each failed attempt he got hungrier and wasted more energy; if he have to catch something soon, or be starving for the rest of the day.

Joshua made another attempt at some small birds, but again he struck at them too soon and the birds flew away before he could catch one.

"You'll never catch anything if you're not patient." Jake said as he caught up with Joshua.

"I know, but I'm starving!" Joshua shouted back.

"I'm starving too, but you have to be patient." Jake said as he slithered past Joshua.

Joshua suddenly raced forward with great speed in search for more prey.

"Stop running around! You'll scare everything away!" Jake shouted at Joshua.

Finally, Joshua clamed down and they soon spotted a roadrunner causally pecking away at the sand and completely oblivious to the two rattlesnakes. Jake and Joshua laid low in some tall dry grass and waited for the roadrunner to come close enough to them to strike.

"Don't move a muscle." Jake said in a whisper

"I won't." Joshua whispered back.

"and keep your voice down." Jake said again in a whisper

"okay!" Joshua said being a little irritated.

The roadrunner slowly made its way closer to them, still unaware of them.

"Wait 'till I say go." said Jake.

"Say what?" Joshua said back not fully able to hear him.

"Go!" said Jake getting irritated again.

The roadrunner suddenly pricked up its head and spotted to two rattlesnakes, Joshua tried to strike at it, but yet again he was too short too soon. The roadrunner dashed off and Joshua tired to chase after it.

"nooooooo…" Jake said as he watched Joshua go after the roadrunner.

Of course, the roadrunner was too quick for Joshua to catch.

"There goes the bird." Jake said as he saw the roadrunner go off in one direction.

"There goes the kid." Jake said as he saw Joshua go off in the other direction.

"And there goes breakfast." said Jake as he watched the roadrunner dash over a sand dune and out of sight.

"Dang, I hate fast food!" Joshua said while looking around a little confused as to where the roadrunner went.

For Jake, this was the final straw; he had enough of teaching this youngster anything.

"That's it, kid! You're on your own!" Jake said as he moved away from Joshua.

"I'm sorry! Give me another chance please!" said Joshua desperately trying to keep up with Jake.

"I've already given you enough chances!" Jake shouted at Joshua angrily.

"Give me one last chance, come on! Please, I'm starving!" Joshua shouted frantically back.

Jake finally decided to give the young rattlesnake one last chance, but if he foiled this one up, he was certainly on his own. Soon they caught sight of a small desert mouse; it looked to be alone, with no one else around. Again Jake and Joshua laid low in some thick brush and waited for the unexpecting mouse to come near. This time, Joshua made sure he was patient and fought every urge to strike out. Soon enough the mouse got close enough and Joshua struck out, this time he diffidently hit something, he hit the mouse in the rear. The mouse yelped in pain and quickly turned around to see what had bit him. Once the mouse saw the young rattlesnake, fear spread across his face and started to run away. But Joshua knew it would not run far before his venom took effect on him and he would die.

Jake slithered out from his hiding stop, he was relived that Joshua had finally caught something.

He moved towards Joshua and said "that's good. Now let's go find him before we lost him."

It did not take long for them to track down the mouse again; it was already dead when they found it.

Joshua sniffed over the body with his tongue to make sure it was dead and started to open his mouth to eat it, but then suddenly looked up at Jake.

"Don't you want it?" Joshua asked him.

"No, it's your kill, you take it." Jake said back.

Joshua just nodded back in response and went back to the mouse and started to wrap his mouth around the body. The mouse was a little big for Joshua to swallow whole, but he managed it anyway.

Then it was Jake's turn to find food for himself, which did not take long since he knew how to track prey and catch it quickly. He soon found another roadrunner for himself, again it got as close to the roadrunner as he could and then waited for the roadrunner to come to him. Once the roadrunner was close enough, he struck out dead on one of the roadrunner's legs, almost killing it instantly; it collapsed on the ground and struggled a bit, but began to go limp. Once the rumrunner was completely dead, Jake wrapped his mouth around its body and slowly started to swallow it whole.

With both Jake's and Joshua's bellies full for the day, they decided to go back to the cave, but no sooner did they reach the cave, they saw a shadowy figure was waiting for them there. Jake did not know if this stranger was friend of foe, he decided to approach with caution. Jake told Joshua so stay low and out of sight while he approach the stranger slowly. Once the two saw each other, they didn't fight, rather the just talked to each other for a while, Joshua could not make what they were saying, he wanted to hear, but he dare not move from his hiding spot. Finally, the stranger finished talking to Jake, walked away from the cave and got back on the roadrunner it was apparently riding and soon dashed off out of sight. Once the stranger was completely gone, Jake motioned to Joshua it was safe to come out.

As Joshua approach Jake, he spoke out "who was that?"

"No one you need to worry about" Jake just said.

Joshua was still curious as to who that stranger was, but decided not to press it further, he knew how testy Jake would get if he asked too many questions.

After that, the both went back into the cave, but once Jake made sure Joshua was safe deep inside the cave; he started to go back out again.

"Where you going?" Joshua said as he saw Jake leave.

"I have to go, take care of some business." Jake said without turning towards him.

"I'll go with you." Joshua said has he started to move towards Jake

Jake the quickly turned to face Joshua and said "no, you stay here."

With Jake's sudden movement, Joshua backed off a bit; he decided it best to obey him this time.

As Jake turned back to leave, he spoke again "whatever you do, stay inside the cave. I'll be back by sundown."

Joshua did as he was told and stayed inside the cave watching Jake slowly disappear over the horizon.

And so, Joshua spent through out the day waiting for Jake to return, he got kind of bored just sitting in the cave, he wanted to go out to explore, but he knew Jake would be furious with him if he found out he disobeyed him.

Soon enough, evening was approaching, and sure enough Joshua could see Jake coming back just like he said he would. Joshua was happy to see Jake had returned, but as he got closer to the cave, Joshua noticed he was holding something in his mouth. Soon Jake entered the cave and dropped whatever he was holding his in mouth in front on Joshua.

"Here" Jake just said to Joshua once he dropped the object he was holding.

After that, he moved on and coiled himself up into his own little corner in the cave.

Joshua then looked over what Jake as set in front of him, it was a lowly rodent of some kind Joshua did not recognize, it was clearly dead, though he didn't know what killed it. Joshua noticed something odd about the dead body; it had a rather large circular hole in its chest, looked to be like a bullet wound. Once Joshua saw that, he looked over suspiciously at Jake, Jake gave him an angry stare in return.

"What? Its food isn't it? Either you eat it or I will." Jake said

Joshua was rather hungry, so he started to eat the rodent without further questioning. Jake then coiled himself up some more and rested his head down. Joshua and Jake didn't say much to each other for the rest of the evening Jake soon made a fire again, this time big enough to keep both them warm, not too later after Jake fell asleep again for the night. Joshua soon fell asleep without much of a fuss as well. Though questions still ran through his head, he knew Jake had killed the rodent, there was a bullet in its chest and Jake had a tail gun, it was not hard to put the two together. Still, Joshua wondered why he went so far just to kill a rodent and why was he gone for so long to do it? Joshua felt something else was going on Jake was not telling him. Joshua wanted to find out what it was, but he knew it was not going to be easy.

Over the next few days, the events that happened that day seemed to be an every day thing, a different stranger would come to the cave, Jake would meet the stranger, they would take for a while and once the stranger would leave Jake left too, leaving Joshua to wait in the cave. Jake would be gone all day and would not come back until evening, sometimes not until late at night and often going back with a dead rodent or lizard in his mouth. He would either give the dead body to Joshua or eat it for himself. Something was definitely going on and Joshua had a bad feeling about it. He certainly wanted to find out what Jake was up too, but he knew Jake would not just tell him. He had to find out his own way. He decided the next time Jake would leave, he would secretly follow him to find out where he was going and doing.

Sure enough, the next day, another stranger came to their cave, Jake talked to the stranger a bit, once they were finished talking, Jake told Joshua to stay in the cave again and soon set off by himself again. But this time he was not going to stay put, from the cave he watched Jake slither off into the distance and once he thought Jake was far enough away, he moved out from the cave too.

Joshua knew it was a big risk to follow Jake, if ever caught Joshua disobeying him, he knew there would be hell to pay considering his ill-temperament, but Joshua tried to stay far enough back so Jake would not notice him, he mostly following him by his scent on the ground. Soon, following behind Jake brought him to a small town, it was not the town of dirt where he first met Jake, and this was a different town. Soon Joshua spotted Jake in the town, Joshua moved in closer to the town to see what Jake was doing there. He quietly crouched behind one of the small building in the town and continued to watch Jake. Jake just appeared to be standing in the middle of the dirt road that ran though the town and was staring at something intensely. Then Joshua noticed he had his tail gun raised and was aiming at something, Joshua turned his head a little and soon saw on the other side of the dirt road was another figure, it looked to be a small desert critter of some kind and soon Joshua could see the critter was holding a gun too. Then realization came into his face, this was a showdown shoot out! He had seen this kind of thing happen many times in the town he came from, two opponents would face each other far apart, they would stare each other down intensely, waiting for each other to make the first move, the actual shooting was often very quick and it always ended unpleasantly, one person always died.

Joshua wondered how Jake ended up in this situation, was this what he went off for? As Jake and his rival opponent continued to stare each other down, Joshua started to get nervous, was Jake really quick enough to not be the one shot first? Joshua really hoped so; he really did not want to lose his other parent. It seemed like forever the two stared at each other. Then suddenly the small desert animal draw his gun and fired it, Jake did the same, it happened in the blink of a eye and Joshua just barely caught what went down. The desert animal's bullet missed Jake, but Jake on the other hand hit his intended target, but only got him in the arm, but the bullet almost blew it off. The small desert critter soon collapsed on the ground from the pain of his blown off arm, Joshua could hear moans and yells of great pain coming from the animal. As it struggled on the ground with its bleeding arm, Jake slowly slithered towards it. Jake loomed of the fallen critter and stared at it with intense angry eyes and his tail gun aimed right down at him. The small desert critter was speaking frantically now, almost begging, trying to mutter out words between sobs and moans. Jake just stared at him coldly. Then suddenly Jake fired his gun again straight into the small animal's chest, spraying blood everywhere. The desert critter didn't even have time to let out one final scream of death.

Joshua was utterly horrified by what he just saw; Jake had killed someone in cold blood. Joshua knew Jake did kill other animals; he was a rattlesnake after all, but nothing like this. He had killed that poor desert animal without hesitation despite the animal desperately begged him not too. Joshua figured this must have what Jake was hiding from him all along, the fact he really was a cold hearted killer and he was a little scared of him by that fact. Soon Jake picked up the dead body of the desert critter and started to slither out of the town, pay little attention the townspeople that started come out of hiding. Joshua soon noticed Jake was heading towards his way; he quickly dashed away from the building and looked for a place to hide. He soon found a bush to hide in; he remained absolutely still as Jake swiftly slithered pass him not noticing him. Joshua knew he had to get back to the cave before Jake did, but that was going to be really hard now since Jake was a head of him now. he figured the best to he could was try to move in front of Jake quietly without him noticing, but the rocks, twigs and dry brushes around him make that very difficult. Suddenly Jake heard the snap of a twig and immediately turned his head towards the sound, he then suddenly dropped the dead animal he was holding and rushed into a brush near by where the sound came from. He quickly wrapped his body around whoever was hiding and dragged it out into the open. Jake was shocked to find out it was Joshua who was hiding.

At first, Jake's eyes went wide with surprise, but then quickly turned to furious anger. Joshua just looked up at him with a guilty weak smile.

"Joshua, what the hell are you doing here? I told to stay in the cave where it was safe!" Jake shouted out.

"I...I know I disobeyed you, but I was worried. Wondering where been going these past days." said Joshua weakly

"So you followed me and spied on me?" Jake shouted back a Joshua

"I...I didn't want too, but you weren't telling me anything." said Joshua weakly again.

"and for good reason!" Jake yelled back.

Joshua started to tremble in fear as Jake seemed to get madder as he spoke.

Jake tried to calm himself down again and said in a some what calmer voice "I suppose you saw all of that too." As he pointed his head back towards the town.

"yes." Joshua said as he lower his head.

"Fucking great, just what I didn't want to happen." said Jake again.

"So I wouldn't know what a cold-hearted killer you really are." Joshua said more firmly.

Jake then swiftly got closer to Joshua "well, if you haven't noticed, I'm a outlaw and still got a reputation to up hold! Didn't your mother ever tell you that?"

"No, she kind of left that part out." Joshua said soberly.

"Well, it is who I am and I can't change that. Besides, it's a job and it gives us food, doesn't it?" said Jake again.

"Yeah, victims you murdered." Joshua said back coldly

"Urgh! I knew it was a mistake taking you in! You're just like your mother, always criticizing me! I've had enough of you, so beat it you spiteful brat!" Jake shouted angrily.

And after that, Jake quickly slithered passed Joshua before he could speak another word, picked up the dead animal again and moved on. Joshua was not sure if wanted to follow him this time, he saw his father's true colors now, cruel, hateful and cold-hearted. It was a mistake for Joshua to ever come to him for help, right now he wanted to be with anyone else besides him. Tears began to stream down his face by the fact his own father did not love him. Joshua slowly started to move in the other direction to search for a better place to go too.

Jake continued to slither on without even giving one glace back, then suddenly a shadow flew over him, Jake instantly knew what that meant and it filled him with fear, hawk! Soon enough he could see the silhouette of a hawk soaring high in the sky in circles. Jake quickly dropped the prey he was holding and dived under the nearest rock he could find. He was able to get under the safety of the rock before the hawk could spot him, but then he saw that the young rattlesnake as not noticed the hawk yet. The hawk spotted the young rattlesnake and started to dive for him.

"KID, WATCH OUT!" Jake shouted from under the rock.

Joshua started to look around franticly, only to look up towards the sky and see a hawk diving for him. In that instant, Joshua froze with fear, unable to move. Without thinking twice, Jake dashed out from his hiding place like a bolt of lightning, got in front of Joshua and fired his tail gun at the hawk. The hawk let out a screech, turned back into the sky. His bullets missed the hawk, but it did manage to scare it off. Then the hawk quickly made another semi-circle to make another dive for them.

Then Jake turned towards Joshua and shouted "go! Run!"

But Joshua did not move, he still too afraid to move.

"Go, now!" Jake shouted louder

But Joshua still did not budge.

Then the hawk made the dive towards them.

"I said GO!" Jake shouted as he roughly shoved Joshua with his nose.

The rough shove made Joshua snap of his petrified fear and he started to run and Jake started to run right behind him. The two rattlesnakes raced as fast as they could though the sand, but the hawk was faster and quickly caught up to them. Just as the hawk was about to grab one of them, they darted to two different directions and all the hawk grabbed was dirt. The hawk quickly flew up again and made another go around for another dive. Jake soon rejoined up with Joshua and they both made for another rock to hide under. The hawk started to dive for them once again and as the hawk was just about to grab them, the both slide under a rock. The hawk clawed and pecked at the entrance for a while, but the two snakes were just out of his reach. The hawk stayed by the rock for a good while, but eventually it gave up and flew off. Jake and Joshua stayed under the rock until it was sure that the hawk was gone. Soon the both slithered out from under the rock. Joshua was still very much shaken up by what had just happened.

The Jake turned to Joshua and shouted " idiot! Never freeze up like that again! If you see a hawk, you run! No matter what!"

Joshua just lowered his head, but then picked it back up again and said "ummm…thanks…for saving my life."

It was true; Jake just did save him without realizing it.

"Don't get too used to it, kid." Jake just said back.

"But why? Why save me when you just said you had enough of me?" Joshua asked back.

Jake didn't know how to answer that, in truth; I really didn't know why he saved him. He was deathly afraid of hawks, so why would he suddenly face one head on and risk is neck out for this young rattlesnake? He had never done this before. Maybe it was because despite the fact he hated this brat, he still felt bad about leaving him out alone to die. Maybe also by the fact he saw so much of himself in this young rattlesnake, matter of fact; he was just like Joshua at that age, disobedient, rebellious and eager. Besides, this kid was still his family whether he liked him or not and he felt he needed to protect him.

"Just a reaction, that is all." Jake said back to Joshua.

Joshua was a little disappointed in his answer; he was hoping he would say because he cared for him.

Jake started to move off again in the direction where the cave was and Joshua just lowered his head and started to move in the opposite direction.

"Are you coming, or what?" Jake said as he stopped, but not directly looking at Joshua.

Joshua turned back around and his face instantly brightened up with a wide smile, Jake was still willing to take him in despite the harsh augment they just had. Joshua moved along side Jake and soon they both set off though the desert back to the cave they called home.

Jake was not sure what he was doing by still taking care of this young rattlesnake, he really did not know the first thing about being a parent, since he was abandoned at a young age by his parents and his other so called guardian figure was a murdering psychopath. Still he felt bad about abandoning his own son, besides he knew what it was like to be alone, it was not a great life and would not wish on any one else. He knew caring of this child would nor be easy, but it was the least he could do to make up for everything he had done in the past.


	5. Ch 4: Changing seasons

**so sorry everyone for the long delay for the update on the next chapter, i have been really busy with school work these past couple of weeks and hardly found the time to write this chapter. but thanks to endless nights of staying up late i finally got it done! hope you all like it. ^_^**

An Outlaw's Legacy

Ch 4: changing seasons

Over the past few days, Jake and Joshua had settled their differences and began to become accustomed to each other. Joshua was still a bit upset with Jake for not telling him he was an outlaw, but he figured he had good reasons, one of them being his safety. Jake still got annoyed with Joshua at times, but he figured it was better to take care of him then abandon him. Jake often thought back to that day with the encounter with the hawk, still wondering why his risked his life to save Joshua. Well, even though he would never admit it, but he did care of the kid a little, it was his own bloodline after all and he did like having him as company sometimes. Joshua soon quickly got better with his hunting, which satisfied Jake a lot because the faster he learned to take of himself the faster he would be able to go on his own. Since he encounter with the hawk, Jake decided he should teach Joshua how to fight hawks too, if running from one was not a option, though it was always better to try to run and hide from a hawk and only fight as a last resort. Jake got no more calls from strangers to take out troublesome people in towns, which became a good thing; Jake really wanted to focus more on training Joshua.

It seemed their problems were starting to end, but really their problems were just beginning, the winter season was fast approaching in the desert. Even in a desert as hot as this, it had been known to get really cold during the winter season, even snow sometimes, although it rarely happened. Winter was not a good time for snakes, since they are cold blooded, they could not maintain the body heat, thus their bodies felt weak in the cold. Some snakes went into hibernation while others just toughed it out. Winter was normally a down time for Jake; he did move out of his cave very often and spent most of the days sleeping, but not now with this kid under toe. Joshua being a lot smaller the Jake, his body was more fragile and could easily succumb to the cold, snakes had been known to die from their body temperature getting to low. Jake had to stay awake and alert to make sure Joshua would survive though the winter.

As the days passed, the days started to get cold and the nights even colder. The daytime was not so bad; it was still warm enough outside for Jake and Joshua to go out, but it was the nighttime that was brutal on them, some nights it got so cold even the fire did not help much. Jake and Joshua would often huddle together to try each other warm, but it did little good against the cold. Soon enough, most of the desert dwelling animals went into hibernation which made food very hard to find for them. They often had to travel farther and longer to find prey sustainable enough for them both.

Eventually, it got too cold in the day time for Joshua to go outside the cave, since his body was smaller and more fragile, his body would succumb to the cold quicker. Jake is could still go outside the cave though, he had been through tough winters before and his body could take the cold a lot more. With Joshua unable to go outside the cave, Jake had to leave him behind alone while he went off hunting, Jake didn't like the thought of leaving Joshua alone on cold days like this, but he didn't have much of a choice, either he would go out hunting or they both die from starvation. Soon it got cold enough for frost to develop on the ground over night, frost was death for snakes and Jake would often have to wait until the frost melted before going out hunting. Very soon it would be cold enough for snow to fall.

One morning, Joshua had woken up before Jake had, this one morning seemed a lot colder then before. So then Joshua decided to look outside the cave to see why and what he saw was very different from what he would normally see. Everything outside was covered in a bright white blanket, from the edge of the cave to the cactus and large rock formations in the distance. The morning sunlight sparkled like diamonds off the strange white substance. Joshua soon noticed that was eerily quite outside, not a single mouse was moving along the ground, nor a single bird flying in the sky. Then Joshua looked down the strange white matte in front of him, he learned down and sensed at it with his tongue, it did not smell like anything odd. The Joshua decided to lick it with his tongue, but the minute the tip of his tongue touched the strange white substance, an cold chill raced in his mouth and all down along his body. Joshua did not expect that and this strange white stuff started to scare him. Joshua then decided to wake up Jake to find out what the mysterious white stuff was all about.

"Jake?" Joshua soon spoke out.

Jake woke up with a grunt and blinked his eyes few times; once he was fully awake he answered back "what?"

"What is all that white stuff?" Joshua asked as he pointed outside the cave.

At first Jake was a little confused and moved towards Joshua to look outside the cave himself. Once he looked outside, he instantly knew what Joshua meant.

"That's snow." Jake said to Joshua.

Jake was not surprised by it, he had seen snow before many times in his lifetime, but for Joshua this was his first time. A snow storm must have blown in over night.

"Snow, what's that?" Joshua asked again.

"Just another thing that falls from the sky, very much like rain." Jake said back.

"Does it hurt?" Joshua asked once more.

Jake gave out a light chuckle and said "no, it doesn't."

Joshua then looked outside with curious eyes.

Then Jake spoke again "still, I would not go out there, way to cold for us. Go out there now and the cold will get ya and you'll die. We'll have to wait until it goes away."

Joshua looked at Jake with a disappointed face, but he understood not to go outside.

Jake moved back into his sleeping spot and curled himself back up, Joshua moved towards Jake and curled himself up close next to him.

"This winter sure is long." Joshua said.

"It just seems that way, but it won't last forever." Jake said back.

"I'm awfully hungry." Joshua said again.

"I know, so am I." Jake said back.

Joshua snuggled up closer with Jake and they decided to back to sleep until the snow would melt away. Joshua rested his head down and Jake rested his on of Joshua's body and they soon both drifted off to sleep again.

Jake hoped this cold weather would break soon or they would die from cold or starvation, but it not break for several more weeks. All the cold temperatures and little food was bold to take a toll on them and sure enough, it did, Joshua had gotten sick. Soon enough Joshua had gotten so weak he could barely eat anything. Jake still went out hunting for food, but to became harder and harder to find anything, soon all that Jake could bring home was a few lowly crickets, barely a meal for both of them. Of course, Jake would let Joshua have all the food he could bring home and left none for himself. He could go for weeks without food, but even his body was being pushed to its limits. As he days passed, food just got sparser and Joshua just got weaker, Jake had to do something quick or he would lose him, but he was running out of options. He hated to admit it, but he needed help, he didn't really want to go for help, but he had no other choice. But who would ever help a rattlesnake? They were mostly feared by everyone everywhere. Jake only knew of one person who would help, Rango.

Rango was the sheriff of the town of dirt(or mud it was now called), Jake knew he would help because he was only person who saw him differently, not as a outlaw, but just has another person and Rango had been know to be sympathetic towards anyone no matter who they were. So then Jake had made up his mind, he would go to Rango for help. Jake carefully hoisted Joshua's limb body on his back and slithered out of the cave into the direction of the town of dirt.

It was very challenging to travel to the town of dirt, having Joshua's limb body on Jake's back slowed him down a lot and the cold did not help much either. Finally, he saw the town in sight, it was nearly dusk when he finally got there, the town looked to be deserted, hardly any of the townsfolk were outside, they were probably in the building or in their own homes taking shelter from the cold. The snowstorm had passed over the town too, a thin layer of snow covered all the building in the town and the lake near the town was almost completely frozen. When Jake finally made it into the town, he was utterly exhausted and collapsed on the ground in the middle of the snowy dirt road. No one really noticed he was there at first, but sure enough one of the townsfolk spotted him and immediately ran into the saloon. A few minutes later Rango ran out of the saloon, he quickly approached Jake, though still weary of him because he was not sure why he had returned.

Once Jake saw Rango coming, he weakly raised his head up to look Rango in the eye.

As Rango continued to approach him cautiously he spoke out "Jake? What are doing back here?"

"I need to ask you a favor." Jake said trying to sound intimidating despite his weaken state.

"Umm….like what?" Rango said nervously.

"I need a place to stay for the winter." said Jake.

Rango let out a small gasp once he said that and said back "umm…Jake…not sure if I can do that-"

"Please, I'm asking you to do it not for me, but for my son." said Jake.

Rango noticed Jake no longer had that intimidating tone in his voice, but more like pleading, if not begging, he also noticed his eyes no longer had that angry glare they usually always had, they looked weak and desperate. Rango had never seen Jake act this way, he though maybe the outlaw did have a heart after all. Then Rango did notice Jake was dragging another snake's body on his back, it looked to be his son, he looked weak and unconscious. Then Rango looked at Jake again, he saw he was very weak himself. There was a moment of silence, Rango had to give this some thought, he knew the townspeople would certainly not approve of Jake staying here, but he just could not turn down someone in need in help, even if he was dangerous. He just could bring himself to let them die in the cold.

Finally Rango made up his mind and said "alright, I'll give you and your son a place to stay, but try to keep a low profile. If were lucky, no one will know you're here."

"thanks." Jake just simply said.

Then Rango quietly escorted Jake into the mayor's building and into the main office room, it was really the only place big enough to house two snakes and the mayor's office remained mostly untouched since the demise of its last owner so on one would know Jake would be there. There was a wood fire stove in the room and Rango immediately got it going to warm the room up quickly as possible. Jake carefully slide Joshua's body off his back, putting him close to the fire of the stove, he was still alive, but only just barely. A few minutes later Rango brought out some blankets that he found. Jake quickly took one the blankets and carefully wrapped around Joshua and then put himself under another blanket and curled his body around Joshua's.

"That should about do it. Do you need anything else?" rango said as he put a final piece of wood in the stove.

"No, this will be fine." Jake said.

"Okay, then I will leave ya alone then. Again, try to keep a low profile, but if you need anything more, just ask. " Rango said.

Then Jake leaned his head down and didn't say another word, Rango assumed that was his cue to leave, but just as he was about to leave the room, Jake spoke out again.

"I guess I own you again for… saving my life "

"nah, don't worry about it., you don't own me anything." said Rango back.

Jake gave a weak smile and then leaned his head in closer to Joshua and with that Rango left the room. Jake then quickly drifted off to sleep

The next morning, as the rest of the townsfolk were getting up for the day, Jake and Joshua were still asleep, still gone unnoticed by the people of the town. Soon Rango rode into town with beans on her wagon. Once the her wagon stopped and Rango jumped off, he bid beans good day and went straight to his sheriff's office while beans would go back to her ranch to do her daily chores. She was just about to leave, she suddenly spotted something odd in the town, and there was smoke coming out of the small chimney at the mayor's office. At first she did not think much of it, but then she remembered that the building had hardly been used in a while. She became to wonder if someone was in there, so she decided to check it out. She got off her wagon and went into the building and walked up the stairs to the main office room. Once she got to the main office door, she noticed it was closed, she found that odd too. Beans leaned her head against the door and listened, she could hear someone or something rustling around in the room. She decides to confront whoever was in there and tell them a thing or two, but once she opened the door, she nearly had a heart attack of what she found inside.

Jake woke up, leaned his head up weakly and just stared at beans, not really caring about her the slightest. Beans, filled with fear as she was, just simply slowly backed away and closed the door again. Beans just stood outside the door for a moment trying to comprehend what had just happened. There lying in the next room was the most dangerous outlaw in the west, rattlesnake Jake had come to the town of dirt…again! Beans thought why on earth he was doing here for a second time within a few weeks. Beans knew Jake could bust out of that room any moment and try to strangle her to death again. Then she thought in that instant, why hasn't Jake come after her yet? What was he waiting for, the perfect moment to strike? At the moment, she did not really care about that, she really wanted to know why Jake was here again. She knew there was only one person who let that snake stay in town.

A few minutes lately, beans stormed into the sheriff's office furiously. Rango was at his desk not really doing much. Beans stood in front of his desk with the most fowl expression on her face and her arms crossed. Rango looked up at her and smiled nervously, knowing she was upset about something.

Finally he said "umm….hi beans. What's up?"

"You want to explain to me why the most dangerous outlaw is in the mayor's office?" beans shouted.

"Oh…you know about that." Rango said sadly.

"Yes, I do! Did you think you could hid it from me?" beans shouted again.

"Just hoped I would." said Rango.

"Well, explain yourself, now!" beans yelled angrily again.

"Okay, okay. You see, Jake came into to town last night, his son was with him, he asked for a place to stay for the winter. He said he son was sick." Rango said calmly

"And you just openly offered it to him? You know very well what happens every time he comes here." said beans throwing her arms in the air.

"Yes, I know, but it was different this time, he was almost begging me for a place to stay. Beans, his son was dying and he looked pretty sickly himself. What could I do? I couldn't just turn him away, that would be….to cold." Rango said.

Beans expression was a little calmer now, she had almost forgotten about Jake's newly found son, then she spoke again "even so, you are putting this whole town in danger by letting him stay here."

"I don't think he will cause any trouble this time around, he is more concerned about his son at the moment. Please, let him stay, just until his son gets better." Rango said.

Beans stood there for a moment in silence, narrowing her eyes at Rango.

"fine! But just until his son gets better and no longer. You tell him that for me!" beans said again.

"Thanks, beans." said Rango.

Beans was about to turn to leave, when suddenly Rango spoke again.

"Oh, one more thing, keep this quiet from the rest of the townspeople, if they find out, they'll panic."

"Dam straight they will!" beans shouted angrily again.

"Please, beans, keep this a secret….for me?" rango asked politely

Beans narrowed her eyes again and then finally spoke out "fine, but that snake better be gone soon before the townsfolk find out for themselves."

"Thanks again beans." said Rango.

And with that, beans turned and walked angrily out of the sheriff's office.

Rango was relieved beans would not tell Jake was here, but he was worried how much longer he could hid him from the rest of the town. He hoped Jake would keep his word of keeping a low profile while he stayed here.

Later on that day, Rango went to check up on Jake, of course making sure no one was watching him first. He soon entered the mayor's office room and found Jake wake awake and looking much better then he last night, but he was still coiled around Joshua.

Jake turned his head towards Rango and said "what do you want?"

"Just came in to see how your doing, that's all." Rango said back.

"I'm fine." Jake just simply said.

"How's your son?" rango asked.

"What concern is that of yours?" Jake said irradiated.

"I'm worried about him too, ya know." Rango said.

It seemed whatever desperate feeling Jake had last night was gone and Jake had gone back to old ill-tempered self.

Jake then looked down at Joshua and said "he is still unconscious, but stable now, he'll pull though."

"Well, that's a relief." Rango said.

Then Jake turned back to Rango and said "oh, and one thing, it would help if that damn women of yours kept you nose out where it does not belong "

"Oh yeah, beans….sorry about that, She won't bother you anymore. I talked it over with her, she'll let you stay, but only until your son gets better." Rango said.

"Fine, I wouldn't want to stay any longer anyway." Jake said.

Then Jake leaned his head back down on Joshua's body and rested.

"Uhh….do you need anything? I can you some food if you want." said Rango

"No, I can get my own food." Jake said without lifted his head up.

"Okay, see ya later then." said Rango.

And with that, Rango left the room once more to leave Jake and his son alone to rest.

Over the next few days, Jake had pretty much kept his word on keeping a low profile; he stayed in the mayor's office most of the time keeping a close eye on his son. Soon he was well enough to go out hunting again, but he went out either early in the morning or late at night when everyone was asleep. Beans kept her word also by not telling anyone although she stayed mad at Rango for helping the outlaw. Rango did often bring them food even though Jake never asked for it. Eventually Joshua finally woke up and was slowly recovering. Soon he was strong enough to eat properly again. Jake soon told Joshua they were in the town of dirt again, but to never leave the room they were staying in, Joshua obeyed him this time since he was still too weak to venture outside anyway. Rango soon visited to see Joshua and was very happy to know he was alright. Even though Jake and Joshua were rattlesnakes, Rango did not want any more misfortune upon them.

Days soon turned weeks, the winter still lingered on, the winter season was often brief in the desert, but this season seemed to go on longer the usual. Jake knew as long as the winter hung around, he could not leave the town, they would just end up in the same situation as before and Joshua would get sick again. Jake started to get restless just waiting for the winter to end. Then he decided he as sick of hiding, why should he have to hide anyway? He was the most dangerous outlaw in the west, if anyone gave him trouble, he would just fill them full of lead before they could blink an eye. He really didn't give a dam what Rango would say anymore, he was not the boss of him.

One day he decided to leave the room and go to the saloon for a drink, he really needed one; he hadn't a good glass of whiskey to so long. He son was fast asleep; it would not matter if he left him alone for a few minutes. He slithered out of the mayor's building towards the saloon, but then soon Rango spotted him, Rango's heart just about went into his throat, thankfully no one else saw him yet.

Rango immediately ran towards Jake and said "Jake, what are you doing? Someone will see you!"

"So, what do I care?" Jake said to Rango irritated.

"You said you would keep low while you stay here." Rango said back

"Forgot that, I'm not going to spent all winter in that stinkin room!" Jake shouted

"What about your son? Shouldn't you be watching him?" Rango said nervously.

"He'll be fine." Jake just simply said back.

"Okay, but look, I don't want you to just go storming in wherever you please, the townspeople well….they still don't know you're here yet." Rango said.

Jake just rolled his eyes and said "you still have not told them? Typical."

"Well, they are gonna get a big surprise." Jake saw as he headed in towards the entrance of the saloon.

"No, wait Jake!" rango shouted.

Rango tried to stop Jake, but it was too late, he was already inside.

The townspeople in the saloon heard Jake coming though the swinging doors and once they turned around to see who it was that entered, fear and shock spread on all their faces.

They were a tad relieved when Rango came in right after him, they knew Jake would not try anything with Rango around, at least they hoped he wouldn't. The saloon suddenly got deathly quiet with the people in the saloon staring in awe at both Jake and Rango. Rango just gave a nervous smile and light chuckle at them, while Jake looked at them all with an intense angry glare and hissed a little.

"And just what exactly is he doing here again?" said the toad bartender said who was brave enough to speak out.

Jake turned towards the toad bartender and hissed at him, which made him back off a little.

"Hey, calm down Jake!" Rango said to Jake.

Then Rango turned back towards everyone else in the saloon, he figured he would tell them everything, there was no use hiding it now.

"Okay, I suppose you all deserve an explanation for this, so here it is. Jake is not here to harm anyone, he just came here to seek shelter because his son, Joshua, was sick and dying, so I offered it to him. He is just staying here until his son gets better." Rango explained.

Everyone in the saloon had kind of skeptical looks on the faces; they didn't really believe the story Rango told. A tough outlaw such as him really care so much about his son he ask for help? Kind of really hard to believe.

Rango then turned to Jake and gave the expression of "could you help him out here?".

Jake got the message clearly and lowered his head to hide his eyes with the rim of his hat, as if ashamed to admit it and said "it's true."

Some of the people still had skeptical looks on their faces, still not convinced by the story. They knew both of them had been known to tell lies

"Hmph, that snake could be telling lies just to get shelter during the winter!" said the bobcat amongst the crowd who was finally brave enough to speak out.

Jake suddenly slithered towards the bobcats really fast and got straight in his face so close he also felt out of the chair he was sitting in.

"You dare question me!" Jake shouted angrily at the bobcat.

"Jake please! Don't do this!" Rango shouted as he ran towards Jake again.

Jake backed off from the bobcat and then intensely stared at everyone in the saloon again.

"frankly I don't care what all you filthy pieces of shit think, the story is true and I'm staying here whether you all like or not!" Jake spoke out furiously

"Not if we run you out of town first!" another person in the saloon spoke out.

Jake let out an angry hiss at him.

"Now, come on, this does need to get ugly." Rango said desperately trying to take control of the situation that was rapidly spiraling out of control.

Suddenly s small weak voice spoke out amongst the crowd. "My pa speaks the truth."

Everyone immediately turned around to see who had spoken and they all recognized who it was right away, there standing in the doorway of the saloon was Jake's son, Joshua. He someone managed to crawl out of the mayor's office and towards the saloon, apparently he was listening to the conversation the whole time. Even though Joshua was strong enough to move, he still looked very weak.

Once Jake turned towards Joshua, his furious expression suddenly fell away from his face and he rushed over to him.

"Joshua, what are you doing outside? You're still too weak to be out." Jake said

"You were not there when I woke up, I got worried. So I went out and then I heard noise from the saloon." Joshua said.

Then Joshua turned towards everyone and gave out a weak "hi" as a greeting. Some of them gave a hello back, now regretting everything they thought earlier. Everyone in the town certainly remembered Joshua.

"Well, is this enough proof for you assholes?" Jake said angrily as he turned back towards the crowd.

Then Jake turned back towards Joshua and nudged him back outside the saloon said "come on, let's get you back inside."

And with that, they both left the saloon, leaving all the townspeople people kind of ashamed of themselves for ever doubting Rango.

"hmph, the big bad guy actually does have a heart. Go figure." said the toad bartender.

After the saloon ascendant, Jake was free to roam anywhere he wished in the town, since everyone now knew he was there and that he would not harm anyone, but still his presence unnerved a lot of the townsfolk. Jake still kept mostly to himself and tending to his sick son, he mostly just kept to the room in the mayor's office and the saloon. No one augured or confronted Jake as it would only stir up unnecessary trouble. The townspeople were more concerned about Joshua since he so friendly to everyone the last time he was here. Some of the people in town tried to visit Joshua to see how he was doing, but they were often shoed away by Jake, only Rango was allowed to visit.

Finally, spring had returned to the desert valley, in a few short days the desert transformed from a desolate landscape to one that flourished with life. With the seasonal rains that marked the end of winter and the beginning of spring, all different kinds of desert flowers bloomed though out the landscape, making it all kind of different colors and desert animals finally came out of their hibernation.

Joshua had made a full recovery and was soon allowed to go outside in the town. Joshua often chit chatted with some the people in town, and even grew sort of a friendship with the desert mouse, Priscilla. Of course Jake did not like Joshua being so friendly to the townspeople, but it was a way to keep him occupied, so he allowed it for now.

One evening, the saloon was fulled with merriment and cheer with everyone in town to celebrate the return of spring, everyone hung out that the bar that evening, even Jake and Joshua. The saloon was extremely crowded and noisy; people were either talking amongst each other and drinking cactus juice and whiskey happily away or dancing away to the music a group of owls was playing. Jake sat at a table in the back corner of the saloon drinking away a bottle of whiskey while Joshua was at a table with Rango and beans. Jake generally did not like being in the saloon when it was crowed and noisy, but since this was going their last night in town, he put up with it for Joshua to be here.

Throughout the course of the evening, Jake was getting increasingly annoyed with Joshua being so friendly with Rango and the other townspeople and not really spending more time with him.

Finally Jake spoke out "Joshua, come here."

Joshua heard his father's call and reluctantly turned away from the table where Rango was and went over towards Jake.

"Yes, pa?" Joshua asked

"I don't want you talking with these people anymore." said Jake.

The expression of shock spread on Joshua's face and he said "but why?"

." I don't want you getting too friendly with them." Jake said again.

"Why not?" Joshua asked again.

"They are not as friendly as they seem." Jake said coldly

"They have been pretty nice to me." Joshua said back.

"Trust me, their not." Jake said.

"You stay by me from now on." Jake said again.

"But I was-" Joshua was about to say.

"You'll do as a say." Jake said getting irritated

"Yes, pa." Joshua said sadly.

Then Joshua sat next to Jake reluctantly, watching the crowd from where he was, he really wanted to back to talk to Rango and everyone, but he didn't want to disobey Jake again. Joshua wondered what Jake had against these people, what have they ever done to him?

Rango soon noticed Joshua had not returned and was sitting over by Jake, so he went over to them to see if there was anything wrong.

"Is there anything wrong here?" Rango said as he walked towards Jake.

"Nothing at all, sheriff." Jake said kind of coldly to Rango.

"Pa said I shouldn't talk to you anymore." Joshua suddenly spoke out.

"Quiet boy!" Jake spat out.

"Really and why not?" Rango said.

"He said your not that friendly." Joshua spoke out again.

"I said shut it!" Jake said getting rather angry with his son.

"Really? Well, let tell you something, I'm the nicest person you'll ever meet around here." said rango.

"He doesn't need to talk to you." Jake finally spoke out to Rango.

"Jake, don't be mean to your own son. Let him have some fun for once, we were just making harmless chit chat." Rango said.

Beans soon noticed Rango was talking to Jake and it didn't look like a friendly conversation earlier, so went over to them to see what was going on.

"What's going on here?" Beans said as walked towards Rango.

"Jake won't let his son be with us anymore." Rango said to beans

Beans then gave Jake an angry look and said "hmph, for all we know he could be poisoning the kid's mind against us."

"You got something to say to me, women?" Jake said to beans angrily

"Yeah, you're not exactly a good father figure for that kid; he has a better chance being raised by buzzards." Beans said definitely

"He is my son! You don't have any say!" Jake started to shout.

"What are you gonna do? Turn him into a heartless outlaw like you?" said Beans again.

"You want to take this outside, women!" Jake said as he reared his body up and shook his rattle as if ready to attack.

"beans! Jake! please, enough!" Rango shouted while getting in between them.

The saloon suddenly got deathly quiet as they got distracted by the heated argument that was going on.

"That's it, were leaving!" Jake said as he quickly slithered away from his table out the saloon entrance.

"Come'on Joshua." Jake said as he continued his way out.

"But I want to stay." said Joshua.

"You'll do as I say!" jake shouted angrily at Joshua.

Joshua was kind of taken a back that Jake had yelled at him, but he reluctantly followed Jake out the saloon hanging his head low. Soon the both of them left the saloon. Rango and the other townspeople just awkwardly stared at them as they left.

"With a dad like that, that kid is gonna to be trouble one day." said Beans with her arms folded.

As Jake and Joshua made their way back to the mayor's office building, Joshua catch up next to Jake and said

"Why you so mean to them, pa? Why not just try to be friends with them? "

"Rattlesnakes don't make friends with lowly critters.' Jake said without turning towards Joshua.

"What do you have against them anyway?" asked Joshua.

"It's not me, it's them that is the problem. Just one look at me and they hate me. I don't even have to do anything and they hate me." said Jake.

"What about the sheriff rango, your friends with him right?" said Joshua.

That made Jake stop in his tracks.

"We respect each other, that's all." Jake just simply said.

With that, they didn't say another word to each other for rest of the eveing. They soon went back into the mayor's office room and settled down for a night's rest.

The next morning, Jake and Joshua prepared to leave the town, Jake wanted to leave really early in the morning when mostly everyone was asleep to avoid another confrontation, but Joshua wanted to at least say goodbye to Rango and the others, so Jake give his son at least that much.

Only Rango and a few other people in the town came to greet Joshua to say goodbye when they were ready to leave. Jake waited for Joshua at the edge of the town, he didn't expect anyone to say goodbye to him, it didn't really matter to him anyway, he was not really good with goodbyes. But Rango soon approached Jake, Jake was a bit surprised Rango would still want to talk to him after the scene that night

"Sorry about last night, Beans can be a bit harsh sometimes." Rango said

"Whatever, doesn't matter now anyway." Jake just simply said back to Rango.

"Well….I guess you and you son take care. Your welcome to come back if you need help with anything again." Rango.

Jake just turned away from him and let out an "hmph", it would be very unlikely he ever come back to this town again.

And with that, Rango walked away from Jake, but then he turned back and said "oh, and try to be nicer to your son."

Jake just let out an irritated snort and soon said "come' on, Joshua.

Joshua said his last goodbye and then caught up with Jake and then they both left the town. Most of the people in the town were glad to see them gone. As for Rango, he just wished they left on better terms and he hoped their relationship had not gone sour again.

Jake and his son traveled though the desert back to the cave they called home. During their traveling, Joshua kind of hung back from Jake and had his head low. Jake soon noticed this. Apparently he was still a little sore for Jake yelling at him last night. Jake started to feel like a sore heel, he didn't to mean to yell at him, it was just the townspeople had made him so angry. Furthermore, he was starting to become I thing he hated most, a strict and controlling father. The some what of a father figure of his childhood was that way and he hated him for it. Now Joshua might start to hate him, Jake didn't really want that, to be hated by his own son, he was already hated by everyone else. He wanted his son to at least have choices, choices he did not have in his early life.

Jake soon stopped and turned towards Joshua, Joshua looked up at him.

"Son, I'm sorry I yelled at you last night, the people in that town just got on my nerves." Jake said softly.

"That's okay, pa." Joshua said as his face brightened up as Jake actually said sorry.

"You're not mad at me?" Jake said perplexed

"No, I know you didn't mean it." Joshua said.

And with that, they continued to travel on their way, but on better terms this time. Joshua really had no hard feeling towards Jake, he just had trouble controlling in temper sometimes and really who could blame for the stuff his as to put up with. Why did the people in that town hate him so much? Probably because he is an outlaw Joshua figured, towns don't take very kindly to outlaws, Joshua knew that much.

It took the rest of the day for Jake and Joshua to finally reach the cave again. When they got to the cave, they decided to settle down for the evening. Jake made a fire as usual even though he doubted they would need it tonight. Soon Jake curled up in his usual sleeping spot next to the fire. This time, Joshua was allowed to curl up next to Jake even though he did not need too. As the evening wear on to night, they both eventually fell asleep.


	6. Ch 5: of mice, men and rattlesnakes

An Outlaw's legacy

Ch 5: of mice, men and rattlesnakes

The next day Joshua woke up earlier then Jake as usual and wrestler Jake from his slumber. Jake soon woke up and they both headed out of the cave. Joshua was feeling really playful today and just wanted to have some fun with his father for once. He knew Jake was not the playful type, but he would at least try. Joshua started to race though the fields of wild flowers happily, Jake got a little annoyed he had to chase after him, but he try not to get angry with him. Soon enough Joshua raced into some tall grass and disappeared from Jake's sight, Jake searched for him, but could not find him again. Then Joshua started to come around behind Jake and either licked in the back of the head and or nip at the end of his tail and as soon as Jake would turn around, he dash back to into the grass again while letting out short bursts of giggles. It seems Joshua was playing game of hid and seek with Jake now.

"com'on now, kid, I don't have time for this." Jake said with a grumble while still trying to find his son in the tall grass.

Suddenly Joshua came up and licked in the back of the head again, Jake turned quickly around, but Joshua had already disappeared in the tall grass again. This kid was pretty quick, Jake had to give him that much.

"You think you're clever, huh?" Jake said to himself.

Jake suddenly stopped moving around and just stood still for a moment and listened. Jake's hearing was sharp and he listened for the slightest bit of noise among the tall grass. Soon he heard some faint rustling from behind him to his left; he knew Joshua would some pop out again. He suddenly turned in that direction and stuck his head through the grass to come nose to nose with Joshua's.

"boo." Jake said in a sly voice.

Joshua gasped and jumped back a little, a bit surprised Jake caught him.

"Nice try, but you can't hide from my ears." Jake said.

"Okay, pa, you caught me." Joshua said playfully.

All that running around actually tired out Joshua a little and he got thirsty, Jake lead Joshua to a small stream not far from the cave where the water from the spring rains had collected, this river bed was often dry for most of the summer, but if there was good seasonal rains water would flow through it for a short time. Soon both Jake and Joshua stopped and took a drink from the flowing stream. A few seconds later, while Jake was still drinking, suddenly water splashed in his face. Jake lifted his head up and growled a little in irritation, only to find it was Joshua who splashed him. He was still in a playful mood, staring at Jake with big bright eyes and wagging the small rattle on his tail happily. Jake just let out a grunt and turned away from him. Then Joshua's happiness quickly went away and was replaced with disappointment. It seemed no matter how hard he tried, he could not break through that tough exterior of his. Joshua knew he was good inside, he had seen a glimmer of it, but Jake just refused to show it anyone.

Then Jake went deep in thought and thought about what Rango said about being nicer to his son, perhaps he has been a little too rough of him, but he wanted his son to be tough, that was the only way rattlesnakes survived out here in the desert. But he was still just a kid too and they do need to have some fun once a while, since he no longer had a mother or any siblings to play with, Jake was all he had. Again, he was becoming thing he hated most, an overbearing parent, Jake barely had any happy memories of his childhood. He should at least try to give his son some what of a better childhood then he had. So he figured one day of just harmless play could not hurt. Of course, he made sure they were alone, Jake still had his reputation to keep up and playing around with a child would not look good in other outlaw's eyes.

Then Jake turned back towards Joshua and scooped up some water in the stream with the rim of his hat and flung it at him. Joshua was caught a little bit by surprise as he was not paying attention to Jake. Joshua looked up at Jake and could see he was smiling a little bit, this was probably the first time he ever seen Jake smile. Joshua then threw some water back at Jake and Jake did the same back. Soon enough they were both in the stream splashing water wildly at each other and laughing happily. Jake actually did feel happy again, something he not felt in a real long time, also as happy as he was when he first meant Lolita. Soon both Jake and Joshua wore each other out and they went back to the cave for a mid-day rest. It seemed they started to enjoy each other's company now and life started to be good again.

But their happiness would not last long.

Early in the morning the next day, like usual, Joshua was the first to wake up and woke up Jake soon after, it was time to get ready for another day of hunting training. And as usual, Joshua raced out of the cave with great speed, filled with energy and happiness.

Jake soon followed behind and shouted out "don't go to far ahead this time; I don't want have to chase you again!"

But of course, Joshua barely listened and continued to dash on through the desert ground. Jake just rolled his eyes and continued on to catch up with him. suddenly as Joshua was racing though some thick brush, something sharp quickly snapped on the end of Joshua's tail and Joshua let out a cry of pain. Jake heard him cry out and immediately raced towards where he was. Once Jake got to Joshua, he saw his tail had been caught in a hunter's trap. Jake never noticed this trap here before; it must have been placed here while they were away from the cave. Jake sensed at it with his tongue, no desert dwelling animal made this, it was certainly man made, and it had man's scent all over it. Joshua let out a whimper of pain as he tried to move his tail caught in the trap.

"Stay still." Jake said to Joshua.

Jake tried to open up the trap with his jaws, but it was too tightly shut and it seemed to only hurt Joshua more because every time he tried, Joshua would whimper more. Jake tried to break the chain that held it to the ground with his teeth, but it was too tough for his teeth. Next he tired to dig out the spike that was stalked into the ground, but it was too firm and deep in the ground for him to pull out. After a few minutes of trying to break Joshua free from the trap, he soon gave up and went over to Joshua to comfort him. Jake could see he was scared and Jake tried his best to comfort him, but honestly he was not sure what to do in this situation. All he could do was try to keep Joshua calm.

"Pa, I'm scared. What is going to happen to me?" Joshua said.

"Shhh, don't think about that right now. I'm here and I'm not leaving you" Jake said back.

Though Jake had a feeling what was going to happen next, whoever put this trap here was bond to come back sooner or later and the encounter would not be pleasant, but he hoped they would not come back for a while yet. As time wore on, it became mid-day, when the heat was at it most brutal. Normally, it would not affect them as they would find some shade for some relief from the heat, but remaining here out in the open the heat took its toll. Jake tried his best to keep Joshua cool, but there was little he could do. The most he could do was lay on top of Joshua and use his shadow to keep Joshua's head cool at least. He wanted to go find some water to bring back to Joshua, but he dared not leave him alone for a second, trapped in the open like this, he would be easy pickings if a hawk ever flew by. Jake tried several more times to break the chain that held the trap, but all attempts proved futile.

Suddenly Jake heard a strange sound coming from somewhere out in the desert, it was like a low rumbling, at first it sounded distant, then it started to get louder, as if whatever it was getting closer. At first, he thought it was thunder, but there not a cloud in the sky. As the sound got louder, it became more familiar to Jake, it was a car engine. Jake had seen cars before, mostly when trying to cross a road in the middle of the desert and having an almost near death experience with one. Jake looked out into the desert landscape and sure enough he saw a dust cloud appeared over the horizon, as the dust cloud got closer, a pick up truck emerged from it. Soon enough the truck stopped a short distance away from where Jake and Joshua were. Joshua soon noticed the truck as well.

"What is that?" Joshua asked.

"Get down and keep quiet." Jake quickly spoke out. Joshua obeyed him.

Soon two humans came out from the truck, they looked to be men, and they started to walk in the direction of the two snakes. Despite the fact the both Jake and Joshua remain absolutely still; the two men seemed to know where they were. Then it dawned on Jake, this must have been who had set the trap and they have come to check it. Once the two men got closer, Jake could see they were carrying rifles with them. Jake had encounters humans with guns before and the experience was never pleasant. Jake instantly knew where this was going and he started to panic. Joshua was a little confused as to why Jake a suddenly gone into a frenzy, Joshua had no idea who the strange tall creatures were that were coming towards them, but some how he knew he should be afraid of them. Jake was at a lose of what to do, he certainly could not fight back against these men, he had no choice but to run, but he could not leave his son behind. Then Jake looked at Joshua's tail struck in the trap and saw it was caught just at the spot where his tail ended in the rattle. Then Jake thought of something in a spit second and quickly grabbed Joshua's rattle.

"This is gonna hurt a bit." Jake quickly said and he rapidly snapped Joshua's rattle off his tail and his tail became free from the trap. Joshua let out a yelp of pain.

Before Joshua could realize what just happened, Jake shoved him and shouted at him "go, run now!"

Joshua did so and Jake was close behind. the two men soon saw the two snakes racing away and immediately fired the rifles at them, their bullets missed them by inches and just bounced off through the sand.

"Don't stop, keep going!" Jake continued to shout at Joshua.

Joshua did so without even glancing back at Jake. Even though it was unsure why it was running away from these strange tall beings, but he felt he had too. Soon Jake and Joshua found a rock they could hide under and quickly slid under it. They stayed absolutely quite under the rock, hoping the hunters did not see where they went. Soon enough the two hunters walked right pass them and onward into the desert valley. The two snakes remained under the rock for a little while longer, and then Jake slowly slithered out from under the rock to check to see if the coast was clear and it was.

Jake turned back towards Joshua under the rock and said "it's alright, you can come out now."

Once Joshua came out, Jake looked at his now bloody and stubby tail. Joshua turned and looked at his tail too; he saw that Jake had snapped of his rattle. Jake felt bad for doing it, but he didn't have any other choice.

"Sorry about that kid, but it was either you or your rattle." Jake said.

Joshua then turned back to Jake and said "what was that all about anyway? What were those strange tall creatures?"

"Man." Jake just simply said as he turned he head to look out into the desert.

"Man? What's man?" Joshua asked.

"Another animal you should certainly avoid." Jake said was he turned back to Joshua.

"Why? Are they dangerous?" said Joshua again.

"Oh yes, they would kill us if the had the chance." said Jake in a deep tone.

"Does man eat us?" Joshua asked again.

"I dun know, probably. Why else would they hunt us?" Jake said back.

Then Jake turned closed to Joshua and said "enough talk of this, we need to get that tail of yours fixed up."

And with that, they both left the rock they hid under and went back to the cave. Jake tried his best to keep the wound clean by licking at it with his tongue and bandaged it up the best he could. The wound would heal, but Joshua would be without a rattle forever, it would not grow back. Jake knew a rattlesnake without its rattle; was not very much of a rattlesnake at all. It was their way to strike fear to anyone they got in their way, though it did not work too well for hawks or humans, but certainly worked for other desert dwelling animals. Jake knew of a way to get his rattle back, but there a bit of a prize to pay for it and Jake wanted to make sure it was Joshua would want. He would give him the freedom to have a choice, which is something Jake did not have when he was younger.

Jake soon turned to Joshua and said "listen closely son; I can give you a rattle back."

At first Joshua was a little confused about what Jake had said.

"I can give you a metal one like mine." Jake said as he pulled his tail gun around to show to Joshua.

"Really? Cool, I like that." Joshua said as his face brightened up.

"But you have to be sure this is what you want, you don't have to choose this." Jake said.

"Yes, I do want it." Joshua said back in a happy tone.

"Are your sure? If you choose this way, there is no going back." Jake said again.

"I understand, but I still want it." Joshua said back.

"Very well, if that is what you choose. I know where we can go to get you a new rattle, we'll leave tomorrow. For now, get some rest." Jake said.

After that, Jake coiled up in his usual spot in the cave and Joshua curled up right next to him again.

The next day, both Jake and Joshua woke up early that morning and immediately set out traveling away from the cave, not even stopping to get breakfast. It was a long journey to where they needed to go and Jake did not want to waste any time. They traveled all though the day, of course stopping for short breaks when Joshua got tried. As it wore on to about mid-day, the heat was at its most brutal again. The sun baked their scaly bodies and the sand they moved across on was like a hot skillet, still Jake did not to stop. Jake could tolerate the intense heat, Joshua however, his body was a little more sensitive, and so Jake would let him ride on his back when the sand got too much for him.

it took almost the whole day, but they finally reached their destination, it was Jake's old town where he would often visit when he was not in the town of Mud, Hell's pit., a town made of mostly outlaws, criminals and lowlife thieves. As usual, when both Jake and Joshua entered the town they got a few looks from the townspeople, but everyone mostly kept to their own business, seeing a rattlesnake was not uncommon here. Joshua looked at the townsfolk curiously as they slithered passed them. The animals of this town where certainly a different crowd then what Joshua saw in Mud. Everyone looked tougher, meaner and if not a bit scary, but Joshua knew he would be safe with Jake, once anyone even took one look at him they backed off.

Soon they came to a guns and ammo shop in the middle of the town and they both went inside. The shopkeeper who was inside sitting behind the counter soon hear someone going in through the swinging doors and was not surprised in the slightest on who had entered. The shopkeeper knew Jake well, and he knew Jake never came in here for a fight. Jake had came here many times before either when he had to stock up on ammo again or his gun needed to be fixed, this was the only place Jake knew that carried his special type of gun. The shopkeeper was a desert iguana that had nothing more on then some pants, a torn sleeveless shirt and a cowboy hate.

"Well, ain't you a sight for sore eyes, long time no see." said the shopkeeper as he stood up from the behind the counter.

"Same for you." Jake said as he slithered closer to the counter.

"what you been doin' these days? Causing trouble in towns I suppose." said the shopkeeper again.

"You could say that." Jake said with a smirk.

"Anyway, what can I do of ya today, Jake?" the shopkeeper said while leaning his hands on the counter.

"I need a gun." Jake simply said back.

"What that old thing of yours getting to rusty for ya?" said the shopkeeper while pointing at Jake's gun.

"Not for me, for him." said Jake a slightly tilted his head towards the floor.

The shopkeeper then leaned farther over the counter to look towards the floor and soon saw a much smaller rattlesnake sitting next to Jake poking it's head over the counter.

"Who's the kid?" the shopkeeper said pointing at Joshua

"He's my son." Jake said in a soft tone.

"_You_ have family?" said the shopkeeper a bit surprised.

Jake let out an irritated grumble at him at that comment.

"Okay, don't need to get testy, it's just unexpected that is all." said the shopkeeper while holding his hands up in surrender.

Then the shopkeeper soon noticed the tip of the smaller rattlesnake's tail was all bandaged up and said "ah, I see he lost his rattle too, poor little guy."

"Well, do you have another one in stock or not?" Jake said firmly.

"I think I have one I can adjust to fit him. I normally don't give guns to kids, but business is business, so who am I to complain." said the shopkeeper again.

"Come in the back room and I'll get him all set up." said the shopkeeper as he turned to open a door that lend to a back room.

Jake nudged Joshua to follow the shopkeeper to the back room, as first he was a tad nervous and weary to follow this stranger.

"It's okay; I'll be right beside you." Jake said softly to Joshua.

And with that, Joshua proceeded to follow the shopkeeper the back room.

Once they got into the back room, the shopkeeper told Joshua to lay down upon a long table the almost filled the whole room. Joshua looked back to Jake for reassurance and Jake nodded in head in response. Joshua moved on top of the table and laid himself flat, out stretching his body. Jake sat close beside Joshua to give him comfort. The shopkeeper soon turned to a large wooden crate placed in a corner of the room and soon took out a large gatling gun that looked very much like Jake's. Then the shopkeeper placed the gun on the table and brought out a tape measure and started to measure every part the tip end of Joshua's tail. Once he was done doing that, he started to unwrap some the bandages from Joshua's tail, the wound was mostly healed by now anyway. After that, the shopkeeper fiddled with tail gun for a bit and then carefully placed it on the end of Joshua's tail. Joshua felt a slight pinch as the gun was place on his tail. Joshua started to get a little worried, but he knew as long as Jake was around, nothing bad would happen to him. Next, the shopkeeper adjusted the gun to fit tightly around Joshua's tail to make sure it would never fall lose. After a few more minute of fiddling and adjusting the tail gun, the shopkeeper finally got up and looked over the tail gun from the side.

"Well, that should about do it." said the shopkeeper as he wiped the grit from his hand with a rag.

"Go on, try it out, see how it feels." The shopkeeper said to Joshua.

Joshua slowly tried to lift his tail, at first the weight of the gun felt heavy to him, but soon enough he lifted the gun all the way up off the table.

"You don't feel any pain, do ya?" said the shopkeeper to Joshua again.

Expect for some slight discomfort from lifting the gun, he felt no pain, so Joshua just simply nodded "no" in response.

"Good. It might a hurt a lil' when you try to lift it real high, but you will get used to that. But if your tail started to hurt a lot, just come back to me." said the shopkeeper.

Joshua just simple nodded his head again in response. Then Joshua looked over his new gun more carefully, it was nothing like Jake's, which was kind of old and rusty, it was brand spanking new, like he got a new toy fresh out the box. It was clean and shiny and Joshua watched it shimmer in the sunlight though an open window. Joshua was kind of satisfied with the gun he was given.

After that, the shopkeeper soon left the room and Jake and Joshua soon followed. Next Jake picked out a box of ammo to use for Joshua's gun and then paid the shopkeeper for the gun and ammo. Before, they left the shop, Jake said "thanks" to the shopkeeper and the shopkeeper just simply said "come again" and tipped his hat to them as they left.

The next place they went too was the general store in the town; Joshua would need a set of his own ammo belts eventually to carry the ammo for his gun. The shopkeeper there knew Jake was well and was not real surprised to see him either. They greeted each other like usual as Jake did with the shopkeeper in the other store. Of course, this shopkeeper as well was a bit surprised to see Jake with a kid of his own. As Jake was talking with the shopkeeper, Joshua started to wander though the store, looking at all the different things that where in there. Jake soon took notice Joshua was no longer beside him and started to fanatically look around for him, but only to his relief, he soon found him next to a hat rack, trying on different hats and looking at himself in a mirror that was near by.

Jake soon moved over to where Joshua was and he saw he had on a black sleek looking hat that looked very much like Jake's.

"Look, now a look a lot like you. Grrrrrr…."Joshua said as he made a pretend angry face in the mirror

Jake then looked at him and then lightly took off the black hat off from Joshua's head, placed that hat back on the rack and took off a light tan more traditional style looking cowboy hat.

"Here, this one suits you more." Jake said as placed the cowboy hat on Joshua's head.

Joshua then looked himself in the mirror with the new hat on; he had to admit this one did look better on him. After that, Jake got some ammo belts to fit Joshua and then Jake paid the shopkeeper from the ammo belts and the cowboy hat and the shopkeeper bid them good day as well.

By the time they got done with their shopping, it got too late in the day to start traveling home, so Jake decided it was best to spend the night in town. Jake thought the best way to kill any evening would be to go have a drink at the saloon. Jake didn't want to bring Joshua in the saloon, especially this one filled with dirty thugs and lowlifes, but he didn't really want to leave Joshua outside either, besides if one person even thought of touching a scale on his son's hide, he would rip limp from limp before they could blink. As usual, when they entered the saloon, he got a few looks from people in the saloon, mostly because they were a little perplexed about the smaller rattlesnake beside him, but no one dared to confront him, so they mostly kept to their own business. And like usual, Jake came to the bar and asked for a drink, the bartender gave it to him without question. Then Jake moved to a empty table in a corner and settled himself down as Joshua sat next to him.

Also like usual, Jake drank a lot of the liquid he favored so much, but not enough to make himself drunk, the last thing he wanted was to be a drunken idiot in front of his own son. Joshua so got bored of just sitting there in the saloon, eventually Joshua quietly sneaked away from Jake when he was not paying attention and headed out of the saloon. Joshua wanted to explore this town more, even though Jake said it was best not to, but with this new gun of his, his strangely felt confident enough that he could take on anything. As he wandered though the town, no one really bothered him, most everyone just took one look at him and turned the other way, probably mistaken him for his father at first glance.

Soon he was so focused of the other people walking around that he was not paying attention to where he was going and suddenly bummed into some one.

"Oh, so sorry, mister, I didn't see you there." Joshua said while he closed his eyes in apology.

But once Joshua opened his eyes again, he saw the animal he had bummed into was another rattlesnake, a young one that looked around Joshua's age. Joshua's eyes brightened up and a smile spread across his face, it was nice to see one of his own kind besides Jake.

"Hey, you're a rattlesnake just like me!" Joshua said to the other young rattlesnake

"I haven't seen another rattlesnake in this town before, you must be new here." said the other rattlesnake.

"Yeah, me and my pa just stopped in today." said Joshua.

"Same here with my ma." said the other rattlesnake.

"My name's Joshua, what's yours? " said Joshua.

"Edmond." Said the other rattlesnake

"Nice to meet you, Edmond. Hey, wanna play?" Joshua said while wagging his tail in excitement.

The other rattlesnake was just about to respond in "okay" when his eyes suddenly caught the sight of the gun at the end of Joshua's tail. The other rattlesnake recognized that type of gun right away and soon backed away from Joshua, becoming afraid of him. Joshua excitement soon went away to puzzlement as to why the other rattlesnake had suddenly become afraid of him.

Suddenly a large adult rattlesnake came racing towards them and shouted "Edmond, what are you doing?"

Once the large adult rattlesnake approached, who appeared to the young rattlesnake's mother, looked down at her son harshly. "Dear, I don't you to stay close to me!"

Then the female rattlesnake looked at Joshua with even colder eyes, she looked over the younger rattlesnake, she saw his tail gun and those eyes of his, she never forgot those bright fiery eyes.

"And who is this? What did I tell you about talkin' to stranger rattlers?" said the female rattlesnakes as she turned back to her son.

"I…I don't know" said Edmond as he hid behind his mom.

Joshua's eyes widened and his mouth hung open a little. He was surprised this other young rattlesnake would say that just after he told his name a few minutes ago.

Joshua tried to make amends with the mother rattlesnake and said "pardon me, madam, didn't me to offend, but we just making harmless chit chat and-"

Joshua was suddenly interrupted when the female rattlesnake quickly lunged forward and gave an angry hiss at him. Joshua suddenly became very afraid of the mother rattlesnake, thinking she was going to strike at him.

Meanwhile, Jake at the saloon so took noticed Joshua was no longer beside him or in the saloon for that matter. Jake quickly moved away from his table and dashed out the saloon like a bat out of hell. He frantically looked for his son all over the town, almost knocking people over as he rushed passed then. Jake started to panic and was afraid something awful at happened to his son already, more then anything he did not want to lose his son; he had already lost so much.

Soon as Jake turned around the next corner, he finally caught sight of Joshua, and relief spread across his face, but then he saw another adult rattlesnake very close to Joshua, looked almost ready to attack. Jake became furious and raced even faster towards Joshua. Before the female rattlesnake could do much else, Jake came up behind Joshua and let out a angry hiss at her. The female rattlesnake then backed away from Joshua, kind of taken by surprise by Jake's sudden lunge. Once the female rattlesnake backed away, she clearly recognized who had hissed at her and looked at Jake with a most foul expression, narrowly in eyes and in brows coming tightly together. Jake did the same, for he too recognized the female rattlesnake, it was the very same one that he ran into the last time he was in this town, the one who called him a "monster".

The two rattlesnakes looked at each other intensely for a few minutes; Jake's lips quivered a little, ready to unsheathe in fangs at any moment. Joshua though they were going to break out into a fight at any moment. Then the female rattlesnake looked down as Joshua and then back to Jake again.

"Is this your boy?" said the female rattlesnake coldly.

"Yes, so what of it?" Jake said just as coldly back.

Then the female rattlesnake looked back down at Joshua with ice cold eyes, Joshua started to get scared, and hid behind Jake.

"Hmph, like father, like son." The female rattler just simply said as she turned away from them and nudged her son to go on.

Jake let out another loud angry hiss at the female rattler as she left.

Soon the mother rattlesnake and her son moved further away and disappeared from sight as they turned a corner behind a building.

Joshua soon moved out from behind Jake and said to him "I don't understand, why didn't that other kid want to play with me? Why was his ma so mean to me? What did she mean anyway by what she said?"

"I'll tell ya at a later time." Jake said as he looked down at Joshua. Then Jake pushed Joshua to the opposite direction to move on as well, he did so without hesitation.

Jake decided it was best to settle down for the night in town, they found an empty shack just outside of the town, just big enough for two snakes to fit in. Jake went in first making sure no one or nothing was in there, then moved on in and coiled himself up in a ball. Joshua soon came in afterwards and did the same. Joshua fell asleep within a few minutes, but Jake stayed awake a little while longer, keeping an eye out making sure no one would bother them. Once he was sure that most everyone in the town had gone to sleep, he learned his head in closer to Joshua and slowly drifted off to sleep himself.

Early the next morning, Jake wasted no time on getting out of the town. Jake actually woke up before Joshua did, and tried to arise Joshua from his sleep, with some reluctance from him of course. Joshua woke up with a groan and his head under his coiled up body, but Jake continued to nudge him to get up. Finally after the constant nudging from Jake, Joshua finally lifted his head up and let out a big yawn.

"Why so early?" Joshua asked in a sleepy voice.

"Cuz' it's a long way back home, the sooner we head out, the sooner we get there. Now com' on" Jake said as he started to move out of the shack.

Joshua just let another yawn and soon followed Jake outside.

The real reason Jake wanted to leave so early so not to confront the female rattlesnake again, he managed to prevent a fight with her last time, but was not so sure he be lucky a second time. Of course, he could easily kill the female rattlesnake if he wanted too, but he did not want his son to see that.

It did not take long before they town they came from was nothing more a speck in the distance and they were in open desert again. This time Jake made more frequent rest stops as they traveled, even stopped to find a quick bite to eat for both him and Joshua. Traveling back was a little harder on Joshua this time since he was getting used to the weight of his tail gun.

While they took a short break under the shade of a bush, Joshua thoughts soon went back to what happened yesterday, on how mean the mother rattlesnake had treated him. Joshua wondered if it was okay to ask Jake now about it.

Soon he finally brought up the courage to ask " ummm…Jake, can I ask you something?"

"What?" said Jake as he lifted his head up and turned his head towards Joshua.

"That mother rattlesnake and her son, what was that all about anyway?" Joshua asked

Jake let out a long sigh, I figured he best tell his son, he was going have to tell him eventually anyway.

"Well, I suppose you know by now I'm not very liked in this part of the desert, even by my own kind." Jake said soberly

"Yeah, because you're a outlaw, right?' Joshua said back.

"Well, yes, but it more then just that." Jake paused for a moment as if to collect his thoughts on what to say.

"I've killed people, a lot of people. So many most people only see me as a heartless monster and nothing else." Jake said.

Joshua gave the expression of Jake was telling him what he already knew.

"And cuz' of that, when they see you, they see me, cuz' you look like me. That is why that other young rattlesnake was afraid of you and the mother was mean to you, they saw Jake and not Joshua." Jake continued to say.

Soon the realization of what Jake had said dawned on Joshua and his eyes went wide with surprise and he soon said "that's not fair! Others shouldn't judge me before they know me!"

"No, it isn't, but that is how the world works." said Jake again.

"What about the people in mud? They didn't see me that way." said Joshua.

"That's only cuz' you were nice to them, but even so, they still see a bit of me in you." Jake said.

"That's not right. When I grown up, I'm going to change all that." Joshua said as he turned away from Jake.

"Hmph, good luck with that, kid." Jake said kind of sarcastically as he laid his head down again.

"I will, you'll see, from now on this gun I hold will no longer be a weapon of death, but a weapon of justice." said Joshua triumphally while holding up his tail gun up high.

Jake looked back a Joshua a little bewildered wondering if he was actually serious about what he said.

Eventually, after they had traveled all day, they finally reached the cave they called home. Once they arrived back home, over the next few days Jake started training Joshua on how to use his tail gun properly, how to load the gun, how to rotate each of the barrels properly, how to aim and shoot at targets and how to control how many bullets he fired.. First Jake taught Joshua how to shoot at stationery objects by shooting at cactus from a far off distance and then on how to shoot moving objects by taking a piece of log and tying it to a dead tree and let it swing back and forth., Jake did all the training he could remember from his early life, when he was not beaten to death. Jake tried not to be so harsh on Joshua when he didn't get it right the first time, he knew that yelling and beating a child was not a good way for them to learn. Eventually though did get real good at aiming his targets and shooting them dead on, surprisingly he learned it quicker then he did with his hunting training. Jake remembered he was a bit of a fast learner too, now Jake started to wonder if that was a inherited trait in his family. Joshua was actually happy when he trained to use his gun with Jake, mostly because, unlike Jake, his training was not fueled by hate and vengeance, but just by the simple fact he wanted to good with the weapon he wielded. Soon enough Joshua got just as good as Jake was, Jake had a feeling he was good to make a fine gunslinger when he is grown up.

One evening, as Jake and Joshua settled down in the cave for another night's rest. Joshua thoughts suddenly went back to something he needed to do, an important question he wanted to ask Jake. The question was lingering in his mind ever since he first met Jake, but with all that as happened lately, he sort of forgot about it, but now he remembered. Joshua wanted to ask Jake, but he was afraid to as it might make him angry again, but it was something he really wanted to know.

Eventually Joshua bright enough courage to ask and spoke out "Jake, can I ask you something?"

"What is it this time?" Jake said as slowly turned towards Joshua.

"Why you leave? Why you leave ma back then?" Joshua asked nervously.

Jake did not respond back right away, he just stared at Joshua for a moment, then turned his head away from him and let out another long sigh.

Now Joshua was worried now he had offended Jake in some way and he sunk back in his coils a bit.

Finally Jake spoke out "well, you're here now, so I guess you have the right to know."

Then Jake slowly turned his head back to Joshua and said " I left cuz' of your mother, but more importantly, you, but for good reasons."

"I don't understand." said Joshua back.

"I left cuz' at the time I was the most wanted outlaw around, a lot of people wanted me dead. Your mother was right, that was no place to raise a kid in. furthermore, I feared if anyone should come after me, they would come after you and your mother too and if anything happened to you or Lolita I would never forgive myself. So I left figuring you both would be better off without me." Jake continued to speak.

"Is that really it? Why not just stop being an outlaw?" Joshua said skeptically.

Jake let out a sort of irritated huff and spoke again "it's not that easy, once you become an outlaw there is no going back. I couldn't change who I have become."

"So that is really the whole truth?' Joshua asked again.

"Yeah, every word of it." Jake said firmly.

Joshua then looked firmly at Jake to try to see if he was lying; if he was Joshua could not tell. So either Jake was a really good liar or he was really telling the truth. Joshua figured he best take Jake's word for it. There was no way he would lie to his own son.

"Well, I suppose those are good reason. You just wanted us safe." Joshua said back.

"And yet here you are and I'm stuck with ya. I guess this is fate's way of punishing me for leavin'." Jake said as he turned away from Joshua again.

"Don't say that, if anything I think it meant to be this way, if I'd never found you, I would of probably be dead anyway." Joshua said.

Jake just looked back at Joshua and let out a "hmph".

After that, both Jake and Joshua coiled themselves up tightly again and soon drifted off into slumber.


	7. Ch 6:sacrifice

An Outlaw's legacy

Ch 6: sacrifice

Over the next few days Jake and Joshua's daily routine went on as usual, they would both get up at first light, go find themselves breakfast and then Jake would continue on training Joshua either with hunting or using his gun, then sometimes break of an afternoon snack and when evening came around they would head back to the cave for a night's rest. Sometimes they would train all day, but Joshua didn't really mind it much, he just liked spending time with his father. Not only did he have to train Joshua in hunting and using hid gun, but also to be aware of your surroundings, even though they were rattlesnakes, there were still plenty of things that could kill them, so Jake taught Joshua what to look out for. Also he had to teach Joshua how to survive in this harsh environment even if there was no food or water for hundreds of miles. Jake often ended up in those situations in his travels, but he knew how to survive days without food or water and know which direction to travel even without many landmarks. Jake actually started to enjoy being a parent, Joshua soon got things quicker and Jake got less frustrated with him and their bond grew stronger. It became clear that Jake would protect his son if he ever got into danger no matter what and soon enough his parenthood would be put to the ultimate test.

Soon the light of a new day arose and like usual, Joshua had woken up first and roused Jake from his slumber to head out to get some breakfast. As they headed out, instead of Joshua racing ahead like he always does, he actually stayed by Jake's side this time. Jake was a bit curious as to why Joshua stayed with him this time, but it was kind of glad Joshua actually obeyed him this time. They want on the search for prey and it was not long before they found something. They found another desert mouse roaming the desert alone, a rather small one at that. As usual, they laid low in some thick bush and wanted for the mouse to come to them. Soon enough the mouse got close enough and Joshua made a strike at it and made it dead on. This time the mouse didn't put much of a struggle; it fell to the ground, twitched violently for a few seconds and then fell limp. Joshua came over to the mouse, of course inspected it first to make sure it was dead and then started to wrapped his mouth around. Jake soon followed Joshua from behind and watched him work with the mouse.

As Jake was watching Joshua slowly eat the mouse, he suddenly got a strange feeling, like a dark shadow was slowing creeping up on him, like they were being watched. Jake usually got this feeling when something bad was about to happen, he didn't know why he got this feeling, he just did. Jake looked up and scanned the horizon carefully, but he saw no one. He stood absolutely still to try to listen for the slightest bit of noise, he heard nothing, but still he had that ominous feeling. Joshua soon looked up at Jake and he could tell something was bothering him.

Joshua soon dropped his mouse from his mouth and said "pa, what's wrong?"

"Shhh, quiet." Jake said without turning he head towards Joshua.

After a few more minutes of silence as Jake staring intensely at the horizon, Jake finally spoke out "Joshua, back to the cave quickly, now!"

BANG!

Right after Jake had said that, gunfire came out of nowhere and a few bullets nearly missed both Jake and Joshua by inches. Jake quickly turned his head in the direction of the gunfire and saw two figures on roadrunners racing down the hill.

Jake immediately shoved Joshua and shouted "get going now!"

Joshua did so without even comprehending what had just happened, he just knew he needed to run. Jake was right on his tail and continued to shout "head for cover! Don't stop, keep runnin'!"

They both soon found a rock to hide under and quickly slid under it. The two figures on roadrunners soon came close to the rock, but they didn't seem to know they were under there. They soon halted their roadrunners and looked around the area for the snakes. Jake tried to sneak a peak at them from under the rock without being seen. The two figures certainly looked like cowboy bandits; one looked to a wild cat of some kind, while the other looked to be a canine of some sort.

"Dam! We lost him!" shouted the canine bandit.

"Don't worry, he will eventually show his face again." The wild cat bandit said to his partner.

"What do we do now?" said the canine bandit back.

"Wait for our next opportunity." said the wild cat as he turned his roadrunner around in the opposite direction.

The canine bandit did the same with his roadrunner and followed his partner, they started to run back up the hill in which they came from, but before they disappeared over the hill, the wild cat bandit stopped and shouted "Jake! I know you're out there, come face us you yellow-bellied coward! We will hunt your scaly hide down and we will not stop until we do!"

After that, the wild cat bandit turned to leave over the hill.

Jake watched them leave from under the rock and he did not come out until he was sure they were gone. Soon enough Jake slowly came out first, then after looking around a bit, he gave Joshua the all clear it was okay to come out.

"Who in the world were those guys?" Joshua said to Jake as he approached him.

"Bounty hunters probably." Jake simply said back.

"What did they want with you?" Joshua asked.

"They want to kill me more then likely, either someone as put a bounty on my head or they're here to settle an old grudge for trouble I have caused them." Jake said.

Joshua had the expression of disbelieve someone who actually be brave enough to go after Jake and want him dead.

"com'on, let's head back to the cave, it's not safe here." Jake said as he turned to Joshua and nudged him along.

Soon they made back to the cave safely, it was not a good idea to go back outside as those bounty hunter still might be near by, so they spent the rest of the day in the cave. Meanwhile, Jake had to figure out what to do next, it was obvious that Jake had to face these bounty hunters, he knew they would track him down no matter where he went. The dilemma was his son, he could not take him along to fight, it would to dangerous, but he could not leave Joshua alone in the cave either for if anything happened to him, the bounty hunter might come after him too or he be left alone again to fend for himself. He knew there was only one choice left, go to Rango for help again, he hated the thought of going back to that miserable town of his again. But Rango was only person he knew he could fully trust; he knew his son would be safe there.

"com'on son, we are heading out again. We're returning to Mud." Jake said as started to move out the cave.

"Really?" Joshua said in happy tone.

Unlike Jake, Joshua actually liked the town of Mud and the sheriff Rango. Despite what Jake had said about them, Joshua still thought they were really nice people. But with a person like Jake being around, who could blame them for being a bit edgy.

It took them the rest of the day to get back to the town of Mud; Jake would often stop and listen for a few minutes to make sure they were not being followed by the bounty hunters. Eventually they had made to the town, this time he was not being the least bit subtle about making an entrance, he did not really care of the whole town spotted him or not. Sure enough, as soon as he entered the town, Rango spotted him, along with Beans who was right beside him and also a few other people in the town who were out and about.

"Is that Jake?" Rango said as turned he head towards in Jake's direction.

"Oh great, what does that slithering bastard want now?' beans said coldly.

"Now beans, try to be nice to him. Look, he as his son with him, he is not here to hurt anyone." Rango said to beans.

Beans just let out an irritated huff.

Soon Rango with beans and a few of the other townsfolk went to approach Jake. As soon as they got close to Jake, Rango spoke out "hello Jake, what beings you back here again?"

"I need to speak with you…..alone." Jake said as he turned to face the townspeople that crowded around Rango and Jake.

Rango then turned around the crowd and said "its okay everyone, I can handle this, you all can go."

The crowd soon turned to leave and went back to what they were doing, beans of course was the less hesitate to leave.

Rango then turned to beans and said "its okay, beans, I can handle this alone."

Beans then looked at Jake, slowly narrowing her eyes coldly at him and then eventually she slowly turned to leave.

Then Rango turned back to Jake and said "okay, Jake, what's up?"

"I need to ask another favor from you again. Unfortunately, someone he after me and I need a safe place my son can stay." Jake said

"Okay, wait…..what? Who is after you?" Rango said.

"That is not of your concern." Jake said back.

"I can help you know." Rango said.

"No, I must do this alone; I don't want anyone else to get hurt. All I ask is that my son can stay here while I'm gone." Jake said.

Joshua then looked up at Jake said "but pa, I can help too…"

"No! It's way too dangerous for you." Jake said as turned to Joshua.

Then Jake turned back to Rango and said "I'm only doing this cus' you're the only person I can fully trust, so I know my son will be safe here."

"ummm….sure Jake, he can stay here." Rango said.

"Thanks" Jake just simply said back.

Then Jake turned to Joshua and nudged him a little and said "go on son, go with Rango."

Joshua then went over to Rango, but then turned and said "you sure I can't come?"

"No, you stay here where it is safe." Jake said back.

Joshua looked up a Jake a minute, then rushed back to him and then buried his face along Jake's body.

"Just promised me you'll come back." Joshua said as continued to rub his head along Jake's body.

Jake made the expression as if was about to cry, but he tried his hardest not too. Rango had ever seen Jake give that expression before, he thought he must really do love his son. Eventually Joshua moved away from Jake and back to Rango.

"Joshua, go and play, I need to speak with Rango alone." Jake said.

"But-"Joshua tried to say.

"It's okay, you can go wait in my office. I'll be there in a minute." Rango said to Joshua.

"Okay" Joshua said as he turned to leave and moved towards the sheriff's office.

Rango then turned back to Jake and just then Jake spoke again "one last thing, if anything happens to me, promise me you'll watch over my son."

"oh com' on Jake, you're a tough guy, you have beaten tons of others before, what makes these guys any different?" Rango said.

"Honestly, I don't know if I can." Jake said soberly.

"That's not the Jake I remember." Rango said back.

"Just promise me you'll watch over my son." Jake said firmly back.

Rango paused of a moment to give it some thought and then said "okay, Jake, I promise."

"Thanks again" Jake said and slowly turned to leave out of the town.

Rango watched him go until he was a small speck in the distance, while Joshua watched him leave from the window of Rango's office, they both hoped this was not the last time they would ever see him.

Jake went back to the cave; he knew the bounty hunters would still be around there. Once he got back to the cave, he saw no one, but he knew they were out there. Jake then fired off his gun a few times to let them know he was here and sure enough it got their attention. The two figures on roadrunners came running over a hill and quickly approached Jake. Soon the two bounty hunters halted the roadrunners a few feet away from Jake. Jake at got a better look at who they were now, one was a cougar, the other was a coyote.

"So, you finally decided to face us?" said the cougar bounty hunter.

"Better later then never." Jake said coldly back.

"Where is your little brat that was with you?" said the coyote.

"Somewhere you'll never find him." said Jake to the coyote.

"We'll see about that, after we kill you first." said the cougar.

Then the two bunter hunters got off the roadrunners and but didn't draw their guns. "so they want to start this off in a showdown, huh?" Jake thought. Jake was fine with that, that was kind of his specialty. Jake and the bounty hunters moved further respectable distance from each other and just waited for each other to make the first move. The bounty hunters drew their hands close to their guns while Jake spun the barrels of his tail gun and cocked it on the ready. For a few minutes they just stood absolutely still and stared each other down, waiting for the other to make the slightest move.

Suddenly in the blink of an eye, the bounty hunters drew their guns and fired and Jake fired his. As for the bounty hunters, one missed Jake by inches, but the other hit Jake but only graced on his left side, Jake let a quick yelp of pain. As for Jake, he managed to hit the coyote bounty hunter in the shoulder, but it did not seem to faze him much as he got right back up, the coyote bounty hunter was weakened, but not out.

Next, both Jake and the bounty hunters dashed for cover behind some rocks as they continued to fire their guns at each other. Once they all got behind their cover, they both played the game of hide and seek. One tried to shoot the other while they were not behind their cover or tried to take cover while being shot at. This gunfight was going to be one long duel of a battle.

Meanwhile, back in the town of Mud, Joshua was in Rango's office and just stared out the window, waiting for Jake to return. It had been a while since Jake left and Joshua was started to get really worried. Rango was at his desk in the office keeping a watch over Joshua, he could tell Joshua was distressed and he thought it would be best to try to give him some words of comfort.

"Umm…don't worry, Joshua. Jake will come back." Rango said.

"Are you sure of that?" Joshua said as he turned to Rango.

Rango did not answer right away. Truthfully, he didn't know how to answer that, even he himself was not sure if Jake would come back. Rango knew Jake was tough and had beaten many people before, but what Jake had said to him before he left made it sound like he was not coming back. Still he did not want to tell that to Joshua, it would only dishearten him more.

"Oh I'm sure, Jake is a real tough guy, on one can beat him." Rango said.

Joshua just let out a sigh and continued to stare out the window.

After a few minutes of silence, Joshua spoke out again "I'm a little tired, do you have a place I can rest?"

"Sure, you can rest in the back room." Rango said.

Rango got up from his seat at his desk and opened up the door to a back room in the office for Joshua. Joshua moved inside, there was a bed in the room Joshua could rest on. Joshua moved on into the bed and slithered under the covers and settled himself down ready to go to sleep.

"If there anything else you need, just let me know." Rango said to Joshua and then slowly shut the door to the back room.

In reality, Joshua was not going to go to sleep at all; he just pretended he wanted to go to sleep. Joshua was really worried about Jake and wanted to help him even though Jake it was too dangerous, but he did not care, he knew Jake would need his help. Also he knew Rango would protest if he was going to help Jake, so it was best to try to sneak away from him unnoticed. Once Joshua was sure Rango would not come back in the room, he got out of the bed and opened the window that was in the room, Joshua was just small enough to slide through the window. He quietly slithered out the window on to the ground outside. Once it was fully out of the room, he quietly closed the window again.

There were not many people out in the town, which was good for Joshua; he wanted to keep hidden as much as possible. He mostly kept to the backsides of building and in the shadows as he slowly crept his way through the town. Next he went to the general store and went in through the back entrance to the back storage room. Thankfully for Joshua no one was in the back room at the time, he quickly search through the room and took a box of ammo and left, then he loaded his tail gun with the ammo and immediately headed out of the town in the direction where Jake would be. Joshua knew Jake would go back to the cave, so that's where he would go too.

Meanwhile, back at the gunfight, for a while it was just Jake and two bounty hunters shooting at each other from behind there cover and never managing to hit there intended target. Jake was getting frustrated on how long this gunfight was dragging on; he wanted this to end this quickly as possible. Soon he had enough of hiding and just rushed out head on towards the bounty hunters, kind of bold and reckless move, but Jake had done crazier things. The bounty hunters where kind of shocked to see Jake racing at them head on, but they continued to fire their weapons at him. Once Jake was close enough to them, he stopped and fired his gun back at them; the bounty hunter had no choice but to flee from their cover. Soon the bounty hunter quite hiding themselves and charged at Jake as well, they started to run around Jake in circles, firing their guns as they did, Jake was able to dodge the bullets. Jake fired off his tail as much as could, but he was always missing them because they just too fast. Sometimes Jake would strike out at them with his fangs, but the bounty hunters seemed to dodge his strikes too. Jake soon realized these were not normal bounty hunters, but ones the specialized in taking down rattlesnakes, they seemed to know Jake's every move before he made it. What Jake had not noticed is that the bounty hunters were not firing off bullets as much as before and intentionally missing their target, only enough to get Jake madder.

Eventually, Joshua finally reached the cave, Jake was not there, then Joshua heard the sounds of gunfire near by, he knew that is where Jake must be. Joshua went in the direction of the gunfire and sure enough he saw Jake fighting with the two bounty hunters. Joshua hide low in some thick bush and watched the fight, he wanted to run out there to help his father, but he wanted to see how the fight was playing out first, so he stayed hidden for now. From what Joshua could see, Jake was not fairing to good in the fight, he didn't manage to hit either of the bounty hunter as they continued to run around him. Joshua could see Jake was getting really frustrated as he let growls and angry shouts.

Suddenly all Jake could hear from his gun was a few clicks, Jake looked at his gun and spun the barrels around to try to get it to reload, but no use, he was completely out of ammo. The expression of "oh crap" soon spread on Jake's face. The two bounty hunters soon stopped running around him and stood in front of him with evil smirks on their faces. The two bounty hunters quickly reloaded their guns, but Jake did not have enough time to reload his. The two bounty hunters slowly started to approach Jake. Believe it or not, Jake was actually a bit scared now because he no idea what to do, but he dare show his fear to the bounty hunters; he kept on his tough brave face. Jake could strike at them, but that would do little good head on, he could probably take out one bounty hunter, but not the other, he be shoot dead before he could strike at both of them. As the bounty hunters slowly walked towards Jake, he slowly started to back away. .

"Not so tough without your gun, are ya?" said the cougar bounty hunter.

Jake continued to back slowly away when suddenly he felt the ground give away from underneath him; he turned around and saw he was very close to a steep ledge of a deep ravine. Jake was corned now, he could either go forward or backward. So he realized this was they bounty hunters plan all along, make him use all of his ammo up and back him in a place where he could not escape. The bounty hunters moved ever closer to him, Jake started to panic, if he jumped off the ledge, surely the fall would break every bone in his body, but if he stayed put where he was he would met his demise by the bounty hunters. Jake knew he only had one choice now, to try to strike at him, he knew it would be useless as this point, but he had to at least try, if he going to go down, he would go down fighting. Joshua was still watching from his hiding place, he see Jake was in deep trouble, he wanted to rush out and save him, but suddenly he felt too afraid to do so.

Jake reared up his body in the classic S shape and let out a hiss, but the bounty hunters were not the least bit intimidated, they just ever closer to him.

"Hiss all you want, but we don't fear you." said the cougar bounty hunter as he rose up his gun and cocked it ready to fire.

"Your reign of terror ends now." The cougar bounty hunter continued to say with his gun still raised.

For a little while, both Jake and the bounty hunter just stared each other down, waiting of each other's next move. Suddenly Jake struck out like a flash, bearing is fangs fully, but the bounty hunter's hand was quicker and shot Jake dead on before he could sink his fangs into him. Jake let out a yelp of pain and soon collapsed on the ground. Joshua saw all of this, shock and fear raced though him, he had to something now or he would lose his father. Without a second thought, Joshua raced out his hiding place, and fired of his tail gun wildly. The bounty hunters were caught completely by surprise, Joshua managed to hit the coyote bounty hunter in the back and he immediately fell down dead. The cougar bounty hunter quickly turned around and fired his gun rapidly as Joshua, Joshua then rushed behind a rock to avoid his bullets. Then the cougar bounty hunter quickly went over to his partner to see if was alright, but he was already dead. The cougar bounty hunter clinched his teeth and balled his fists in fury that his partner had been killed. He quickly rose up his feet again and starting shooting his gun wildly in the direction Joshua was.

"Motherfucking serpent!" the bounty hunter shouted as he continued to fire his gun at Joshua who was behind the rock, not really caring if he was wasting bullets or not.

Joshua dared not move from behind the rock because he knew would get shot.

Jake did not get a good look at who his savior was, but he a good idea of who it might be. Right now, that did not matter to him, the bounty hunter was distracted away from him, and it was now his chance to make a move. Despite Jake's weakened state, he slowly slithered towards the other bounty hunter's dead body and picked up the gun that was lying next to him with his month. Then Jake aimed the gun at the cougar bounty hunter with his mouth, the bounty hunter was too preoccupied with shooting at Joshua to even notice Jake. Jake managed to fire the gun and a bullet went straight into the bounty hunter's back side and he immediately fell to the ground. He was down, but not dead yet, he was still alive and breathing, but just barely. The bounty hunter tried desperately to crawl away on his stomach, but Jake caught before he could get far. Jake wrapped him in his coils and Jake made the bounty hunter face him so he could see the bounty hunter's face when he met his end. Despite the bounty hunter was now his Jake's grasp and knew he was going to die soon, he still showed no fear of Jake.

"Go to….hell." the bounty hunter muttered out between coughing up blood.

"Already been there, say hello to my friends when you get there." said Jake darkly.

Jake then picked up the other bounty hunter's gun again and shot the cougar in the face, the bounty hunter died instantly. Once Jake shot the bounty hunter, he collapsed on the ground again, his weakened body exhausted from his efforts.

Once Joshua was sure all the gunfire had ceased, he rushed out from his hiding spot towards Jake, Jake was lying fully flat on the ground resting his head and breathing heavily.

"Joshua…. It was you…you disobeyed me again." Jake said in a weak voice.

"I know, but I couldn't leave you to face them alone. I suppose you mad at me again?" Joshua said

"No, this time I glad you didn't." Jake said again.

Really in truth, if Joshua had not interfered at the right moment, he would probably be dead by now.

Joshua could see the bullet wound on Jake's side and said "are you okay?' even though he could see he clearly was not.

"Got another hole put in me, bleedin' fast." Jake said

"What should I do?" Joshua said frantically.

"Go get Rango and the others, they will know what to do." Jake said.

"Alright!" Joshua said and then raced off back in the direction in the town of Mud.

Joshua hated to leave Jake all alone in his weakened state, but it did no good just to sit there with Jake. Joshua knew nothing of tending and stealing bullets wounds, Rango would be of more use to him now.

When Joshua got back to the town, he immediately rushed to find Rango, once he found Rango, Joshua told him he had gone off to help Jake. Of course, Rango was a little angry with Joshua for sneaking out when he was not looking, but once he heard Jake had been shot, he dropped his anger and he himself immediately rushed to get help. Rango went to Doc who was the jack rabbit doctor in town and some of other people in Mud to help bring Jake back to town. At first they were all a little reluctant to help Jake, but Joshua begged them too and none of them felt the heart to say no to him. Doc took his wagon since his was big enough to carry Jake's body while Rango and the others go on roadrunners since it would make the trip faster. Joshua quickly led Rango and the others to where Jake was.

By the time they had make to Jake, put him on Doc's wagon and brought him back to the town, Jake was in pretty bad shape. He lose a lot of blood from his wound and start to cough up blood from his mouth, Joshua was really worried now Jake might not make it. They soon placed Jake back in the mayor's office since it was the only building that was big enough for Jake. Once everyone got Jake settled down in the room, Doc told everyone to leave the room including Rango and Joshua. Doc needed to be alone to work on Jake's wound; too many people around would only stress out Jake and the doc out more. Rango and Joshua waited outside the mayor's room while everyone else went back to their daily routine. Doc worked very carefully with Jake and tried to pull the bullet out the best he could, but every time he did, Jake would wince in pain despite he was barely conscious. Doc thought about putting Jake out, but that might make his condition worse. Finally doc managed to get the bullet out and then quickly worked on wrapping up the wound.

Doc had been in the room with Jake for 45 minutes and Joshua was getting increasingly worried with each passing minute. Finally doc had come out the room with blood all over his surgery gloves and his cloths, he wiped his forehead with his arm as if he had be sweating.

Rango approached doc and asked "how is he?"

Doc had a very grim expression on his face and said "he looks pretty bad, I managed to pull the bullet out and wrap his wounds the best I could, but he lost a lot of blood and he's breathing heavily, too soon to tell if he will make though the night or not."

"Can I go see him?' Joshua said with sorrowful eyes.

"No, best not, Jake needs his rest right now." Doc said to Joshua.

Joshua leaded his head down with a sad expression on his face.

Rango approached Joshua and said "its okay, he'll be alight. We'll see him first thing tomorrow."

Despite Rango's comforting words, Joshua was still in a grim mood. Soon Rango lead Joshua out of the mayor's office and to the inn in town again to spend the night. Rango stayed with Joshua for a while talking to him and trying his best to cheer him up, but it did little good. Rango did feel real sorry for Joshua, but he didn't know what else to do. Eventually the day grew into night and Rango had to leave to back to his home at Bean's ranch and Joshua was left alone in his room at the inn. Joshua tried his best to get to sleep, but he just couldn't, he was too worried about Jake. Joshua would often stare out the window towards to mayor's office building, hoping to see Jake come out of there alive and well, but he never did. Joshua finally decided to crawl back into the bed, slither under the covers and berried his head deep under the pillow. In this moment, he wished everything would just go away, no more pain, no more sadness, no more lose and that everything would go back to how it was, him and his father, happily being with it each other, as it how it should be.

The next morning, Joshua woke up early like usual and waiting for Rango to return on the pouch at the inn. As a few of the townsfolk walked passed Joshua, they stopped to say the condolences about Jake and Joshua thanked them. Normally no would care about Jake, but once they heard Jake did it to protect his son, I thought a little better of him and that he was so bad after all. Soon enough Rango appeared with doc in toe, Joshua went to meet Rango and immediately after that they went to check up on Jake. Of course, the doc was the only one allowed in first to check on Jake's condition. Jake woke up when doc came though the door, still laying in the same spot in which they left him. He managed to make it thought the night, he was not breathing as heavily as before, but he still looked very weak. Doc changed the old bandages with new ones, since the old ones were soaked with blood, the wound had stopped bleeding, but it looked infected. Doc tried to clean the wound as best he could and put new bandages on.

Soon Doc came out the room and asked for Rango to come in, Joshua followed, but was told to stay outside for the moment. Joshua was getting fed up with this, he wanted to see Jake. Rango said it was okay and that he would talk to Jake first to see if Joshua could come in. Rango went in the room and approached Jake, Rango could see Jake was in bad shape; he had very droopy looking eyes and was his breathing was labored. Rango didn't whether it just the light in the room, but Jake's eyes didn't look as bright and fiery as before.

Rango approached Jake and said "how you feeling?"

"Just dandy." Jake said in a weak voice. Obviously Jake still a bit of sarcasm left in him towards Rango despite his ordeal.

"Where's Joshua?' Jake said again.

"He's right outside." Rango said.

"Send him in." Jake said.

"Jake…I don't think that is-" Rango said in protest.

"Do it….please." Jake said interrupting Rango.

Rango gave up and did as he was told; he went over to the door and opened it for Joshua to come him. Rango nodded his head in yes to Joshua and Joshua moved on in. Joshua moved towards Jake, Jake tried his best to left his head up, but failed and rested his head back down. Soon Joshua meet Jake nose to nose and stared at him with big sorrowful eyes.

Then Jake turned towards Rango and doc and said "I need to talk to my son…alone."

At first both Rango and doc looked at Jake then in each other a bit puzzled. Then Rango soon said "sure Jake, we'll leave you alone for a bit."

And with that, both Rango and doc walked outside the room, closed the door behind them and waited outside.

Once they had left the room, Jake turned back to his son and began to speak "listen closely, my only son, when your grown up try to me a simple kid of man."

Joshua looked at Jake bit confused of his words.

"Don't make your life filled with hatred and vengeance, in the end it will leave you only broken and empty inside." Jake continued to say.

Then Joshua realized Jake was saying as if was going to die.

"Don't worry, I won't, you'll get better and we'll be happy together again and-" Joshua started to say.

"Sometimes things don't play out like you want them too." Jake spoke out.

"Don't talk like that, you'll get better." Joshua said.

"You have learned everything you need, son, now all you have to learn is how to say goodbye." Jake said.

"Just promise me one thing, that you'll a simple kind of man, all I want is for you to be satisfied." Jake continued to speak.

Tears started to stream down Joshua's face and then he said "yes, I promise."

Joshua rushed over to Jake and rubbed his head against his, Jake tried to do the same as best he could.

After a while, Rango and doc were allowed to come back in. doc checked Jake's bandages once last time and then prepared to leave.

"You should leave too" the doc said to Joshua.

"Please, can't I stay with Jake?" Joshua asked.

Doc gave it some thought, since Jake was past the critical point now, there was no real harm in it, so he said "okay, you can stay, but don't play with him, he still needs a lot of rest."

"No, it is best you go." said Jake towards Joshua.

"But-"Joshua tried to speak.

"Go, I'll be fine." Jake said again.

After that, Rango, doc and Joshua all left the room. Doc went back to his office building to tend to his other sick or injured patients, Rango went back the sheriff's office and Joshua went back to the inn. Joshua didn't do much all say expect mop around, he was still too worried about Jake, he didn't even want to play with Priscilla and the other kids in Mud. Again the other people in the town tried to give him comforting words, but it didn't help much. As evening draw near again, Joshua went by the small lake that was at the edge of the town and looked out into the horizon watching the sunset. Rango soon spotted him over there and walked over to join him. Rango walked over and sat down on a log next to Joshua, Joshua just simply turned his head a little towards him and then turned back to look at the sunset.

For a while there was silence between them, then Rango finally spoke "you know, your lucky, Jake is usually not that nice and caring to anyone."

"I know, but that does not matter anymore." Joshua said soberly.

"I'm sure he will be okay, he is tough" Rango said.

"stop saying that. Stop saying that everything will okay when it isn't." Joshua spoke again as if was about to cry again.

"Look, I'm just trying to help out." Rango said.

" I know, I'm just so worried he might not make it." Joshua said again.

Rango then scratched the back is head trying to find the right words to say. "Umm…listen; before Jake left to go fight the bounty hunters, he said if anything happened to him, I would watch over you."

Joshua turned towards Rango in surprise "really? Why?"

"I don't know, kind of surprised me as well. Said he trusted me the most." Rango said.

"Trust you? Why is that?" Joshua said.

"I guess I'm the only one he knows that would not betray him in the end." Rango said.

"Anyway, the promise is stands and I promise to keep my word." Rango said.

"Thanks. Mr. rango, but you don't need to watch me all the time, I can take care of myself."

"Still, I want to know if we trust each other, I know I can trust you, but can you trust me?' Rango said.

Joshua gave a weak smile and said "sure."

Then Joshua held out in tail gun and Rango grabbed hold and shook it as in agreement with each other. After that, Rango left to leave Joshua alone again. When night time finally came, Joshua slowly went back to the inn. But he didn't want to sleep in the inn again; he wanted to sleep with Jake. Joshua looked around, he didn't really see anyone near him, and most of the people in the town had already gone to their homes for the night. Once Joshua made sure no one was watching, Joshua slowly crept into the mayor's office building, up the stairs into the room Jake was sleeping in. Jake looked to be asleep already, so Joshua crawled quietly as possible towards and snuggled next to Jake, being careful not to bush against his wound. Jake woke up and saw Joshua resting next to him, but this time he did not speak out in protest, he just let him lay there and laid his head back down to go back to sleep.

Over the next few days, Jake seemed to get worse then better, he drank and ate very little, if anything at all and his wound was not healing too well either. Jake would still breathe heavily and with every passing day his eyes got fainter and harder to keep them open. Doc would check on Jake daily to change the bandages and clean his wound, but it made little difference, the wound would just not heal up. Joshua would spent most his time with Jake, though out the day and night, he barely left the room Jake was in. The townsfolk were getting concerned for Joshua that he worried too much about Jake to take care of himself.

Days soon turned into weeks and Jake still showed no signs of improvement, eventually most the people in the town accepted that fact Jake was just going to suffer and eventually die. Some of the people in the town would be happy to see Jake go, Beans especially, but his passing would be hard on Rango and Joshua especially. Finally doc at to tell Rango that it would be most likely Jake would die and it was up to Rango to tell Joshua some how. Rango knew Joshua would be devastated, but he had to tell him one way or another, so Joshua might not be so heart broken if Jake did finally go.

Eventually Rango walked inside the mayor's office building because he knew that is where Joshua would be. Rango walked in the room, Joshua was still resting beside Jake with his head on Jake's body while Jake looked to be asleep. Joshua was still awake and lifted his head when he heard Rango came in.

"Oh, hi ," Joshua said.

"Good day, Joshua." Rango said back.

As Rango walked in, Joshua could tell something was bothering him and look at him curiously.

After a long pause, Rango finally spoke again " umm….there something I need to tell you."

"Okay what is it?" Joshua said.

"I…can't say here, best go outside where we are alone." Rango said.

Joshua was a bit confused on what Rango said but he said "okay" anyway.

Rango and Joshua both stepped outside the room, Rango had a sober expression on his face now and took off his hat and fiddled with it for a bit trying to find the right words to speak. Joshua grew more concerned on what the chameleon had to say.

"Well, what is it?" Joshua said starting to get impatient.

Finally Rango spoke up "well….I don't know if you have heard…but most the people in the town, including doc, think Jake might die "

Shock spread arcoss Joshua's face and he said " but you said he would make it!"

"I know, there is a possibility he might make it, but also a possibility he might not." Rango said.

"Well, I don't care what any one else says, Jake will make it!" Joshua said.

"I know you want to think everything will be okay, but you have to think in reality too." Rango said.

"I am and I believe Jake will pull throw this!" Joshua started to shout.

"I just want you to be prepared if he doesn't." Rango said.

Joshua said nothing more, tears started to stream down face again and he rushed back into the room Jake was in, crying his eyes out. Rango did not follow him; he just gave one sad glace back, closed to door and walked away. He figured there was no further use to talking to him, it was hard for Joshua to accept the fact his father might be dying. Joshua rushed over to Jake and rubbed his head along Jake's body still crying which in turn woke Jake up.

"Joshua, what's wrong?" Jake said to Joshua.

Though sobs and moans Joshua tried to speak out "everyone thinks you're going to die, even Rango!"

A sober expression grew on his face and he said "its okay, I'm here."

Then Jake wrapped his body around Joshua as much as possible despite the fact he was still in a lot of pain and licked Joshua's face with his tongue to try to calm him down. Jake tried to comfort Joshua even though what the townspeople had said was partly true, he himself was not sure it was going to make it.

At one point everyone was for certain Jake would die, even Joshua, but then after the next few more days, Jake suddenly got better again, he started to eat and drink more again and his breathing slowly went back to normal and his wound started to heal right. Soon enough he was not in so much pain anymore and started to move around more. Everyone in the town was kind of stunned to what had happened, no one had the slightly idea what made Jake suddenly turn for the better. Some said it was nothing short or a miracle while others said it was because of his son, whatever the reason, some of the people were glad the Jake did not die because the last thing this town needed was a dead rattlesnake and a depressed juvenile rattler on their hands. Joshua was a lot happier now that he knew Jake was going to make it, Joshua would start to play with other kids in Mud when Jake wanted to be alone to get some sleep. Soon after Rango did apologize for saying Jake was going to die to him, but Joshua said not to worry about it, he was thinking what everyone else thought.

Soon Jake gained enough strength back to crawl his way out the mayor's office and into the saloon. The townsfolk were actually a bit nicer to Jake this time when he came into the saloon., they didn't give him a nasty looks or comments, since they knew the hell Jake a been through, it was best to just leave him alone. Soon enough Jake was back to his old self and his bullet wound was nothing more then a nasty scar. Soon the time had come Jake was well enough to leave town, but he not want to leave just yet. Not only did his near death experience change a bit psychically, but a bit mentally too. He figured the people in this town were not so bad, they helped him out when they could have just left him out there to die, but he knew it was mostly because of Rango and Joshua that he was alive. Jake would try not to be so cruel to them as long as they showed no cruelty towards him.

Jake decided to stay one more night and spent the evening at the saloon again with Joshua by his side. This time things went a lot smoother then Jake was here last time, the saloon was crowded again, but everyone in there mostly ignored Jake and went about their business. Even Rango and Beans were there, even though Beans still showed her intolerance towards Jake. Jake was sitting at his empty table in the corner like usual with Joshua beside him. Jake could tell Joshua wanted to be where Rango was, but stayed with Jake because he was still bit worried about him.

Jake soon got Joshua's attention and said to him "if you want to talk to Rango, that is fine."

"But you said-"Joshua was about to say.

"Go on, I'll be okay." Jake said back.

Joshua then simply nodded his head and went over to the table Rango was at. Joshua spent the rest of the evening chatting with Rango and the other people of Mud while Jake stayed at his table and drank his whiskey.

The next day, Jake did not leave really early in the morning like before, he waited until the whole town was up for the day before he wanted to leave, mostly so Joshua could say goodbye to Rango and the other townspeople again. Rango with a few more of the townspeople this time came to say goodbye to both Jake and Joshua, even Beans was there despite her hatred towards Jake. After Joshua said his goodbyes to everyone, Jake approached Rango and said

"Well, I guess this is where we part ways again."

"You can say here a little longer if you still don't feel alright." Rango said.

"Nah, I feel it's time I left I've already over stayed my welcome here." Jake said.

"Well, okay then, come back any time." Rango said.

Jake just simply let an "hmph" and then surprising turned towards Beans, Beans of course gave him an angry look.

"Look, I know you hate me, you have good reason too, but that was in the past, let's forgive and forget about it," Jake said.

Beans was a bit surprised he would say that to her, but still she did not believe his words, so she folder her arms and turned her head sharply away from him.

"Fine keep your grudge if you want, but if you let it go, don't do for me, do it for our children." Jake said as helooked down at Joshua who was right beside them.

Beans looked at him kind of shocked and appalled and said "how you know if were going to have children or not?"

"Come' on, isn't it obvious? The way you and Rango are all over each other, it is bond to happen sooner or later." Jake said.

Beans folded her arms again and narrowed here eyes at Jake, then she gave what he said some thought, then she finally said "I will think on it, but I still won't forget what you did."

"Fine, I'll take that." Jake said.

Jake then turned back to Rango and just simply said "thanks for everything."

Rango and the other townspeople kind of gasped a bit when he said that, Jake had said thanks to Rango many times before, but never in public for everyone else to hear. After that, Jake turned away and started to move out of the town and Joshua soon followed. Rango and the others watched them go out into the desert over the horizon.

"What was that all about?" beans said.

"When snake meet death, it change him." wounded bird simply said.

As Jake and Joshua traveling along the desert back to their cave, Joshua finally spoke out "that was nice of you to say thanks to Rango and what you said to beans. See, it's not so bad to warm up too them."

"I just figured it's the least I could do for all Rango as done for me." Jake said.

"So you are friends with him now?" Joshua said.

Jake gave a little smirk at Joshua and said "yeah, I guess we are."

Soon enough Jake and Joshua reached their cave again, they were both pretty tired from their travels, so they decided to rest down early for the night. Jake settled in his usual sleeping spot and Joshua snuggled next to him as Jake wrapped himself around Joshua, soon they were entangled with each other and soon they both drifted off to sleep.


	8. Ch 7: legacy

**Warning to the readers, this chapter as kind of a sad ending, so if you don't like sad endings, don't read any farther. **

An Outlaw's legacy

Ch 7: legacy

Eventually the day had come when Joshua had grown up in a young adult rattlesnake and was ready to go off on his own. At first Jake was looking forward to this day, but with the time he had spent with Joshua, his bond with him had grown strong and soon it became the hardest goodbye he would ever make. Joshua wanted to leave to start in own life, make his own way in the world, but Jake was reluctant to let him go. One morning, when Joshua woke for a brand new day inside the cave, he did not need to wake up Jake this time, he was already up. Joshua smiled at Jake and they rubbed their heads together for a little bit and then they both went outside to catch breakfast. They eventually caught breakfast for themselves and ate together, but Jake was kind of sad throughout breakfast because he knew this was probably the last time they would have breakfast together.

As morning grew into early afternoon, Joshua finally said what needed to be said to Jake

"Pa, I know you want me to stay a little longer, but I think it's time I go out on my own. Start my own life; see what the wide world out there as to offer me."

Jake leaned his head down until the rim of hat covered his eyes and said "then go, I should not hold you back any longer."

Joshua came up to Jake and nudged him so he would raise his head again.

"Don't worry, pa. You taught me everything I need to know; now it is time to let me go and I'll keep in touch." Joshua said.

"Take care of yourself then and remember what I said." said Jake.

"Try to be a simple kind of man, of course." Joshua said,

"Right, go on then." Jake said.

Jake and Joshua rubbed their heads together for the last time and as they did so Joshua said "don't you die on me again okay?"

"Same to you." Jake said

Then they parted and Joshua slithered away from Jake into the sand dunes, but he turned around again and said "oh by the way, I think you made a great dad, ma would have been proud."

Jake gave Joshua a weak smile once he said that.

Then Joshua turned away again and started to climb over a tall sand dune, once Joshua was over the sand dune, Jake climbed on top of it himself to watch Joshua go. Jake watched Joshua go off into the distance until he was nothing more a tiny speck on the horizon. As he watched, Jake tried his best not to cry, but it was no use, a single tear trickled down his face. Then Jake looked up to the empty sky above, Joshua was right, if his mate Lolita was watching from somewhere, she would be proud.

At first, Joshua just wandered aimlessly through out the desert, going from town to town, looking for one to clam as his own home; he even stopped by back in Mud a few times to keep in touch with Rango, but none of them felt like home to him. Then he thought of one place, the town in which he was born in, that town had no sheriff or peacekeeper to speak of since Lolita died, at least not that he knew of, so he decided to go there. He wanted his tail gun to be used for good and the best way to do that was become a sheriff of a town. The town he grew up in was now overrun with outlaw gangs and thugs, so that town would the perfect place for him to start.

When Joshua first came into the town, of course the townspeople there were very weary of him and did not trust him because he looked like the famous grim reaper of the west. Joshua told the townspeople he would protect their town, of course they did not believe him, so he proved his word by running the outlaws gangs and thugs out of town. Of course, most of them put up a fight, but they were all child's play to Joshua. Eventually, as Joshua ran more outlaws out of town, the townspeople began to trust him and soon enough they made him sheriff of the town. Eventually the town had gone back to being safe again.

While Joshua was in town, he soon came upon the house in which in was born in that was at the edge of the town. His home was a shabby old broken down shake now, slowly fading way from years of neglect, once Joshua went inside the house, everything was still the same as he remembered it, the table, the chairs, the fireplace and the kitchen. Joshua remembered the kitchen the most. As he looked around, he could still a few pots and pans and kitchen wear scattered about. Joshua didn't know whether it just the smell of the house, but he thought he could still smell his mother's cooking, which brought a tear to his eyes. After looking the house over, Joshua thought to fix this place up, this was where he was born, so this is where he shall continue to live. Eventually Joshua fixed the place up until the point it looked like new, he was proud of his work.

As months passed, word of Joshua being a sheriff in a town spread like wildfire from town to town though out the desert, mostly because it was unheard of for a rattlesnake to be a sheriff of a town. eventually word of this reached Jake, he was not angry with him for becoming the opposite of what he was, Jake was actually happy, happy that his son had made a better life for himself then he ever had. After that, Jake visited him many times to see how he was doing. Eventually Joshua found himself a female mate of his own and they had kids, Jake ever thought he see the day he would have grand children.

As for Jake, he was getting older and weaker; all those years of fighting were taking their toll on him. his scales are turned a faded gray color, his tail gun had become old and rusty, barely able to move the barrels anymore, his hat had become more torn and ruffled, baring a more color of gray then black and he soon got a bad case of cataract in his eyes, his left eye had become completely clouded over and the other eye was not far behind, showing more colors of dull reds and oranges then bright yellow. Soon he was no longer strong enough to keep doing the outlaw business, so he gave it up and just continued to do what he needed to do to survive. As time went on, people began to fear him less, knowing as he got older, he was not much of a threat anymore. Soon Jake's name began to fade into history while his son's name became to rise up as the famous rattlesnake sheriff of the west. But that was the way Jake wanted it to be. Jake knew he would eventually pass on, but at least he had a legacy to leave behind now.

Despite Jake's growing age, he still made visits to see Joshua and his grand kids, it was quite a long journey from his cave to the town Joshua lived in, but it was worth it. It was in the spring season; Jake decided to make another visit to Joshua because he feared this would be the last time he would be able to make the trip. Once he got to the town, he got a few looks from the townspeople, but they mostly ignored him, not because they feared him, but because they didn't see him as much of a threat anymore.

Soon he got to Joshua's house and he knocked on the door, shortly after Joshua had opened the door.

"Pa? What brings you here?" Joshua said kind of surprised to see Jake.

"What? Can't a father visit is son once in a while?" Jake said back.

"Well, whatever the reason, I'm glad you came." Joshua said as they both rubbed heads together for a little bit.

"Come on in" Joshua said as moved away from the door.

Joshua moved on in the house and as soon as he did he heard five cheerful little voices shout out.

"Grandpa!" shouted five young rattlesnakes as the rushed towards Jake.

There were Joshua's and his mate's children, they had five offspring, three sons and two daughters, their names were Joseph, Marie, sierra, Dante and of course Jake jr. Jake greeted all this grand children happily, normally Jake would be really annoyed with kids, but Joshua broke him from that, besides these were his family. Most of them looked like their mother with her eye color and scales, but one had those same bright fiery eyes as Jake and Joshua had, he was kind of smaller then his siblings, but he made up for it by being the loudest and spunkiest.

"And how all my favorite little rattlers doing today?" Jake said.

"Just fine, grandpa." Jake jr said.

"Any of you been causing trouble?" Jake said them.

"pa." Joshua spoke out.

All the young rattlesnakes let out giggles and said "nha-na, grandpa."

Then Jake moved towards the living room with all the young rattlesnakes crowded around him, Jake would tell them stories, stories of his younger days when he fought in gunfights and his grandchildren were always eager to listen, of course he left out the part of him being a outlaw, I thought best to leave that part out. With his stories, the children kind of admired him as a hero, Jake liked that thought.

Jake soon saw Joshua's mate who was in the kitchen, she was a beautiful snake with light tan scales and bright blue eyes, kind of reminded Jake on his long lost love. Joshua had made a good choice with her. Of course, the female rattlesnake knew who Jake once was with his name still not forgotten by most rattlesnakes, but she still accepted Jake anyway for the sake of Joshua and their grandchildren.

While Jake sat in the living room and continued to tell stories to the young rattlesnakes, Joshua went out of the house to patrol the town; he still had the job of sheriff to keep up. Later in the day, Jake and his grandchildren went outside to play, Jake still had some energy left in him despite his age and the kids liked having a good rough housing with him, but Jake did tire out most easily. Soon enough the kids were starting to wear him out. Soon Joshua returned home and soon saw Jake and the kids were playing and that jake was in much need of a relief from them.

"Okay, kids! That's enough! Give your old snake a little break!" Joshua shouted to them.

"aww…pa, can't we play a littler longer?" said Joseph.

"Nope, it's time to come in and waste up for supper anyway." Joshua said.

"Okay." All the young rattles said and moved away from Jake.

Joshua then moved towards Jake and said "there, I thought you could use a break from them."

Jake let out a soft chuckle and said "they certainly are a feisty bunch."

After that, Joshua went back into his house and Jake wanted a little bit of time for himself for some rest and relaxation, so he decided to go to the saloon in the town. As he entered the saloon, the people in there were not weary of him and mostly ignored him, which Jake was actually glad about, he was glad that he could finally go into place to have a simple drink without getting strange and nervous looks from people. Jake came towards the bartender in the saloon and asked for a bottle of whiskey, the bartender gave it to him without a fuss. Then Jake, like usual, went to sit at a table that was empty. Even though Jake had pretty much lost his mean streak, he still liked to be alone when he drank.

The saloon was pretty empty, only a few people hung out in it; things seemed pretty quiet outside too, Joshua seemed to have done a fine job in keeping town safe. Jake started to doze off while drinking the whiskey, when suddenly he heard a lot of noise coming from outside, there was a lot of shouts, yells and gunfire. Some people started to run frantically pass the saloon, then he heard the unmistaken sound of a screech from a hawk. Jake quickly rushed outside the saloon to see what all the noise was and he saw that his son, Joshua, was fighting a hawk! The hawk kept hopping up and down and hovering in the air around Joshua, while Joshua tried to fend off the hawk with his tail gun, either firing it or swinging when the hawk got too close, Jake could see Joshua's mate was near by their house and had her coils wrapped around the children to protect them.

Jake immediately rushed out towards Joshua and the hawk, Jake still had his fear of hawks, but at this moment his need to help his son out weighted his fear. Jake rushed up next to Joshua and fired his tail gun at the hawk, even though his gun had gotten old and rusty, it could still fire bullets. Taken by surprise by the sudden appearance of the second rattlesnake, the hawk backed off and took off into the air.

Once they were sure the hawk was not coming back, Jake quickly turned to Joshua and said "have you lost your mind? Fighting a hawk? It could have easily killed you!"

Joshua turned towards Jake and said "I know, pa. But what else can I do? Let the hawk raid the town? I'm sheriff of this town, I'm the one suppose to protect it."

"Some battles are better to walk away from." Jake said.

"I can't, if I don't protect this town from any kind of threat, what would the people think of me?" Joshua said.

"That won't matter if you're dead!" Jake shouted.

"Well, if I am to die, at least I won't die in vain by doing the thing I love most, protecting this town and my family." Joshua said.

"You're a fool, but you're my fool, I guess I can't convince you otherwise." said Jake.

Joshua just simply shook his head in response "no"

Then Jake thought for a moment and then said "as that hawk been a problem here?"

"Unfortunately, yes, the hawk comes here often attacking the town, mostly attacking me and my family, but we have been lucky so far. I manage to drive the hawk away, but the hawk keeps coming back." Joshua said

Jake then thought a bit more, after a long pause he said "I know how to make that hawk go away for good."

Jake started to move away from Joshua towards the edge of town; Joshua knew what he was going to do and raced in front of him to stop him.

"No pa! This is my fight! I'm the only one that should protect this town!" Joshua said.

"Trust me, a hawk you cannot fight alone and you can't fight one by brute force and luck either, you got to outsmart one or it will get you." said Jake.

"Please pa, don't do anything foolish. This is my responsibility." said Joshua again.

"Fine, but watch yourself, son. I don't want to have to pick up the pieces of what is left of ya." Jake said.

"I'll be fine, pa." Joshua said.

After that, Jake and Joshua went back to the house; Joshua tried to calm his mate and children down. Even Joshua's mate had concern for his safety, but he was the sheriff after all, danger kind of came with the job. After everyone had settled down, Joshua's mate began to make dinner in the kitchen while Jake and Joshua kept the children occupied. After dinner, they decided to shut in for an early night's rest, for Joshua and his mate getting all the kids to go to bed was not an easy task, many of them wanted to continue to stay up and pester Jake. Once they finally managed to get all the children to sleep, they went to bed themselves. Everyone slept in their own rooms while Jake slept in the living room by the fireplace, which he did not mind too much, in his old age he liked sleeping by the warmth of the fire.

Early the next morning, Jake woke up very early before anyone one else had, even before Joshua. Once he made sure everyone was still asleep, he slowly and quietly slithered out of the house and out into the desert. Even though he had told Joshua he was not going to deal with the hawk, he was far from finished with the hawk. Jake figured since the hawk frequently attacked the town, it must be a local hawk and had a nest somewhere near by and just maybe, babies. Jake figured that could be the only reason why the hawk was so determined to go after his son and family.

Jake searched the desert area around the town looking of any good place a hawk nest might be, sure enough he saw a tall rock formation not too far from town. Jake slowly climbed the rock formation, looking between every nook and cranny for any sigh of a nest. Soon enough Jake could hear little beeps and chirps coming from somewhere, he headed in the direction of the noise and sure enough, nestled between two large rocks was three tiny hawk chicks settled in a mess of twigs.

He had found the hawk nest.

Thankfully for Jake, the mother hawk was nowhere to be seen. Jake did not hesitate, he knew what he needed to do, he quietly slithered towards the nest, quickly grabbed one the chicks with his coils and fled the area.

Meanwhile, back in the town, Joshua and his family had already woken up for the day, Jake had not returned yet. Joshua was a bit puzzled to where Jake had gone, but he figured he was either in the saloon or out in the desert catching himself some breakfast. After they all ate breakfast, Joshua's mate and the kids were getting cleaned up and ready to their daily chores while Joshua made his way to his sheriff's office, the townspeople saying "hello good day" as he went. Suddenly, an awful high-pitched shrieking noise came out of nowhere; Joshua looked to the sky and saw it was the hawk again, coming in fast.

"Dear, get the children back in the house quickly!" Joshua shouted to his mate.

The female rattlesnake did so; she quickly gathered up the children and rushed into the house. While everyone in the town started to run in panic, Joshua stood firm, ready for the hawk to strike. Soon enough, the hawk dove straight down at Joshua, talons fully outstretched, at the last minute Joshua dodged the hawk, and the hawk hit the ground, tumbled a little bit, but then got right back up and took off into the air again. The hawk circled for another go around, Joshua stood still for the next strike. Soon enough the hawk dove again and again Joshua dodged the hawk at the last moment. This time the hawk was kind of expecting it and immediately flew up again. Joshua tried to fire his tail gun at the hawk, but his bullets missed it.

What the hawk did next was kind of unexpected, the hawk landed right in front of Joshua and outspread its wings wide. This was a trick hawks often used to confuse rattlesnakes, but Joshua knew this trick well and would not fall for it. The hawk slowly walked towards Joshua with its wings still out stretched, Joshua still stood firm with his gun aimed at the hawk. He didn't really want to kill the hawk, but if he had no other choice, he would do it. Soon the hawk was really close to Joshua, Joshua just stood still waiting for the hawk's next move. Suddenly the hawk flew up in the air again, but only for a split second and slammed back down on top of Joshua, Joshua did not have tme to react. The hawk dung its long sharp talons into Joshua's hide, Joshua let out yelps of pain. One of the hawk's feet held Joshua's head down while the other held down the rest of his body.

Joshua's mate was about to rush out to help him, but as soon as she was about to Joshua shouted "no, don't come out! Protect the children!"

She did as she was told and stayed in the house, even though it pained her greatly to see her mate being torn apart by the hawk, but she knew protecting the children was a better choice, there were their future. The children looked on from the house in fear, shouting his name out to continue on fighting.

Joshua could try to fire off his tail gun at the hawk, but without seeing where he was aiming, it was too much a risk he would shoot himself rather than the hawk. The hawk tried to pick Joshua up, but his thrashing about in the hawk's grip prevented it from doing so. Next, the hawk started to stomp on Joshua, stabbing him repeating with its talons with one of its feet, creating more and more puncture wounds. Joshua was in a panic, he didn't know what to do, no matter how hard he tried, he could not escape the hawk's grip, and soon he thought he was going to die by this hawk. Then the hawk held Joshua down again by his head, threw off his hat and was ready to plunge its sharp beak in Joshua's head.

Suddenly a loud voice rung out "yo, hawk!"

The hawk stopped and picked its head up to see who had shouted, Joshua could see who had yelled out too. It was Jake and wrapped in his coils was a tiny hawk chick flailing around trying to get free.

The hawk let out an ear piercing shriek and was about to lunge for Jake, but Jake squeezed tighter on the hawk chick which make the hawk stop.

"Come any closer, and I will kill your baby." said Jake.

The hawk just stood still and gave a scornful look at Jake.

"This is why you come after my family so much, isn't it? We make good food for your babies." Jake said.

The hawk looked at Jake then down at Joshua under her feet and then looked back at Jake with sort of an evil smirk. Then slammed her foot down in Joshua again, cutting him with her talons, Joshua let out another yelp of pain.

Jake squeezed even a little tighter on the hawk chick and said "if you kill my son, I will kill yours."

The hawk let out another shriek. She would like to tear apart the rattlesnake right now, but she knew she could nothing; Jake would kill her baby before she got to him and the loss of one her chicks would hurt her greatly.

"But if you let my son go, I will let yours go. So what will it be hawk?" Jake said.

For a while, Jake and the hawk just stared at each other in a standoff, not sure of what to do next. Finally the hawk seemed to understand and let go of her grip on Joshua and slowly walked away from him. As she did so, Jake slowly uncoiled his body from around the hawk chick; the hawk chick was still alive. As the hawk walked passed Jake, Jake went over towards Joshua. The hawk gently picked the hawk chick with her beak and after giving Jake one last angry glare, she took off to the air.

Jake looked to the sky to watch the hawk fly away off into the distance and then turned to Joshua and said "you alright?"

"Yeah, I will live." said Joshua despite he was in a lot of pain from his puncture wounds.

Joshua's mate immediately rushed out towards Joshua, happy to see he was still alive. Joshua and his mate rubbed heads to together for a bit.

Then Joshua looked angrily at Jake and said "pa, what were you thinking? Taking one of the hawk's babies? And you said I was crazy."

"I told you I knew how to make the hawk go away for good and this was the only way. If I didn't do it the hawk would just keep attacking you and the town." Jake said.

"And what makes you think this will make the hawk go away?" Joshua said.

"Cuz, I threatened her family, he hawk will deem the area unsafe and either moves her chicks or hunt somewhere else." Jake said.

"How can you be sure of that?" Joshua said.

"Trust me, I know." Jake just simply said back.

The Joshua said again "well, even though I don't like what you did, I'm glad you did it, if you hadn't intervened when you did, I probably would be dead."

"See, hawks are not so easy to pick a fight with, are they?" Jake said.

"Oh, hush up." Joshua said.

Then both Jake and Joshua let out soft chuckles at each other and after that they all went back inside the house. Joshua's mate started to bandage up his wounds, he was not cut too deeply, but I still hurt a lot. Then Joshua settled down in the living room for some rest. Later in the day, Jake kept the children occupied by playing with them while Joshua's mate patrolled the town since Joshua would be out of action for the day. As the day wore on into evening, Joshua's mate returned home as well as Jake with the children, Jake was plenty wore out from the day. Joshua felt much better from good day of rest and would be back of his feet… or scaly body by tomorrow. Really thank god because Jake didn't think it could take another day of the children. Joshua's mate soon made dinner and they all sat down for dinner as a family. After dinner, Jake decided to head out of the house on his own, Joshua let him go alone, and he figured Jake needed his quiet time.

Jake headed to the saloon, hoping it was still open and it was; only a few people remained in there for a late night of drinking. Jake did his usual, asked the bartender for a bottle of whiskey and sat at an empty table in the corner. After about an hour of drinking, Jake started to feel a bit tipsy and figure he had enough to drink and was ready to leave. Then suddenly Joshua came into the saloon, saw Jake in the corner and moved over to him.

As Joshua approached Jake's table, Jake spoke out "shouldn't you be with your family?"

"They will be fine without me for a few minutes. I just came to see ya, I was worried about ya." Joshua said.

"I'm fine." Jake said.

Then Joshua asked the bartender for a bottle of cactus juice and sat next to Jake at his table.

Jake looked at him puzzled and said "you drink?"

"What? Can't I have a drink with my old man for once?" Joshua said.

Jake just smiled and let out a soft chuckle.

After taking a sip from his cactus juice bottle, Joshua spoke again "you not still mad at me about the hawk, are ya?"

Jake looked at him and said "no, you're right, you're the sheriff of this town, and it's your duty to protect it no matter what."

"And you're not upset with me for becoming a sheriff either?" Joshua said.

"No, really I'm proud of you. You made your life better than I ever had it; you made yourself a better person." Jake said.

"You could have had all this once too ya know." Joshua said.

"No, I couldn't. My heart was so set on revenge that by the time I got it, I didn't realize who I had become. I went down a path I could not return from." Jake said.

"It was not all bad, you got me from it." Joshua said.

"mmm….yes, that is one good thing." Jake said.

After a few more minutes of Joshua drinking together with his father, Joshua soon said "well, I better head back; my mate will start to worry about me."

"See ya, son, I'll hang out here a little longer." said Jake

"Don't stay out too late." Joshua said as he left the table.

Then Joshua paid the bartender for the drink and left the saloon. After a bit Joshua had left, Jake finally decided to leave too. He returned the bottle of whiskey and paid the bartender and moved his way out the saloon.

Jake slowly slithered his way to the edge of the town, he wanted to return to the house, but something prevented him from doing so. Jake soon climbed a tall hill just outside the town and he stared out into the horizon, watching the last bit of sunlight slowly fade away. He knew deep within his being that he was fading; it would not be much longer before he was no more, but Jake was okay in accepting that fact. He had done all he needed to do and he was prepared for whatever awaited him in the afterlife. He knew his son and his family would be fine without him.

Suddenly, Jake heard someone approaching from behind him and he turned to look to see who it was, it was the hawk. Jake never noticed the hawk was there, the hawk gave out no warning call and Jake didn't hear the hawk fly towards him and land behind him, it was like the hawk was a ghost. It was the same female hawk Jake and Joshua drove away earlier; the hawk just stood there and gave Jake the same scornful expression as before. Jake just looked at the hawk with sad tired eyes and made no attempt to flee.

Instead he turned his head back to stare at the sunset on the horizon and said to the hawk

"If you want to eat me, go ahead, I will not fight you. Take me so your children don't starve."

Jake knew he could not fight this hawk, even if he wanted too, his body was now too old and wore out to put up a fight, he would lose.

The hawk was a bit surprised and confused the rattlesnake would not run, but she would not pass up the chance to make a kill anyway.

Jake slowly closed his eyes, waiting for the hawk to strike.

Soon the hawk flew up in the air again, and then dove for Jake, her talons fully out stretched.

Jake did not fight back.

It was getting really late at night and Joshua was getting worried about Jake since he had not returned to the house yet. Finally Joshua decided to go look for him; his dad might get a little annoyed with his son nagging on him like a little school boy, but Joshua couldn't help but worry. Joshua searched in the saloon and all over the town, but still he could not find Jake. Joshua asked some the townspeople who were still up if they had seen him, but no one had seen him since he left the saloon. Finally, Joshua decided to use his senses to find Jake, he flicked his tongue on the ground trying to find Jake's scent. Soon enough he found it and he followed it until he reached a spot out in the desert just outside of town. Joshua soon saw hawk tracks and what looked like a bit of a struggle in the sand.

But all Joshua could find of Jake was his hat.

Joshua did not need to think hard of what happened to him.

The next day, a funeral was held for Jake, even though his body was never found; Joshua still wanted to do it anyway. Joshua, and his family, along with a few of the townspeople that knew Joshua well came just to pay their respects. Joshua's mate was kind of indifferent on the matter, she was sad, but not in the same way as Joshua. The children however were just as sad as Joshua was, they liked Jake a lot, he was like a second father to them.

Finally Joshua spoke a few words for Jake "Rattlesnake Jake, he was not always a good person, but he was a great father. To whoever is up above, please forgive him for his sins and let him into heaven, he deserves it. Let him be happy with my mother."

After Joshua finished speaking, he picked up Jake's hat and gently placed it on a tombstone that had Jake's name roughly craved into it.

Soon after, the crowd started to disperse away from the burial site, soon only Joshua and one of his children, Jake jr, remained.

Jake jr stared at the tombstone and then looked up at Joshua and said "why did grandpa Jake go away? Did he not like us anymore?"

Joshua looked down Jake jr, those bright fiery eyes of his burned with intense light, just like Jake's.

Joshua gave a weak smile and said "no, quite the opposite, he loved us all so much that he was willing to sacrifice his life for us, so we could live on. So you could grow up to be a strong rattlesnake like him."

"Oh, then I'm gonna be the best gunslinger that ever was when I grow up, just like you pa." said Jake jr.

"I'm sure you will, son." said Joshua.

Soon after, Joshua and Jake jr left the tombstone of Jake and went back into the house. Jake was gone, but not forgotten, Joshua made sure of that, he made sure his name would never be forgotten and he would continue on his father's legacy.

**Author's note: if this story was a movie, this song would play during the end credits **

Simple man by Lynyrd Skynyrd

_Mama told me when I was young_

_Come sit beside me, my only son_

_And listen closely to what I say._

_And if you do this_

_It will help you some sunny day._

_Take your time... Don't live too fast,_

_Troubles will come and they will pass._

_Go find a woman and you'll find love,_

_And don't forget son,_

_There is someone up above._

_(Chorus)_

_And be a simmmmmppppplllllleeeeee kind of maaaaannnnnnnn._

_Be something you love and understand._

_Be a simmmmmmppppppllllllleeeeee kind of maaaaaaannnnnnn._

_Won't you do this for me son,_

_If you can?_

_Forget your lust for the rich man's gold_

_All that you need is in your soul,_

_And you can do this if you try._

_All that I want for you my son,_

_Is to be satisfied._

_(Chorus)_

_And be a simmmmmppppplllllleeeeee kind of maaaaannnnnnnn._

_Be something you love and understand._

_Be a simmmmmmppppppllllllleeeeee kind of maaaaaaannnnnnn._

_Won't you do this for me son,_

_If you can?_

_Boy, don't you worry... you'll find yourself._

_Follow you heart and nothing else._

_And you can do this if you try._

_All I want for you my son,_

_Is to be satisfied._

_(Chorus)_

_And be a simmmmmppppplllllleeeeee kind of maaaaannnnnnnn._

_Be something you love and understand._

_Be a simmmmmmppppppllllllleeeeee kind of maaaaaaannnnnnn._

_Won't you do this for me son,_

_If you can?_


End file.
